David Milne

Patricia Morley is a professor of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University, an associate fellow of the Simone de Beauvoir
Institute, and author of Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

Milne, who stood aloof from schools and groups, is only recently being
recognized as the major painter that he was. He was perhaps his own best
critic. He wrote: “Art is love, but not love of man, or child, or love
of woman . . . just love, love without an object, a spilling of the oil
of love” and “The thing that ‘makes’ a picture is the thing that
‘makes’ dynamite—compression.” Any poet, and most artists, would
agree.

Born in rural Ontario, Milne (1882-1953) was recognized early in New
York and London, while Canadians remained indifferent. His response to
poverty was to simplify his mode of living. For many years he painted in
a tiny tarpaper shack near Georgian Bay.

This handsome art book comes out of a major retrospective organized by
the Vancouver Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Canada, and the
McMichael Canadian Collection. The 140 full-page illustrations, most of
them in color, include many works never before reproduced. The text
consists of a linked series of seven essays by six Milne scholars: Megan
Bice, Christine Boyanoski, Lora Senechal Carney, Franзois-Marc Gagnon,
David Silcox, and Ian Thom (senior curator at the Vancouver Art
Gallery). Together, the essays flesh out the life and illumine the
unusual work of this fine Canadian painter, whose interest in values and
carefully controlled use of color set him apart from his contemporaries.

The combination of excellent color reproductions with an intelligent
text makes David Milne an exceptional volume, and one long overdue.