Krieghoff: Images of Canada

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is also the
author of The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek, and
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Hom

This handsome volume is a worthy tribute to Canada’s most important
19th-century artist. The lively and substantial text, together with
color and black-and-white photos of works by Krieghoff and his
contemporaries provides what sponsor Alan W. Stark calls “a historical
snapshot of nineteenth-century Canada.”

The text consists primarily of major essays, one each by Dennis Reid,
Ramsay Cook, and Franзois-Marc Gagnon. There are also notes, a
chronology, catalogue, exhibition history, bibliography, and index.
Matthew Teitelbaum, director of the Art Gallery of Ontario, credits Reid
with providing much new information and for reminding us that art not
only reflects the values of its time but also plays a role in molding
such values in unique and specific circumstances.

Reid, chief curator of the Art Gallery of Ontario, details the
quarter-century of work that fed into this first retrospective
exhibition of Krieghoff’s work. The individual works, Reid notes,
reveal Krieghoff’s very considerable skills as a painter and his
changing vision of Canada as it evolved from colony to nation. The
publication reproduces in full color the works in the exhibition (152 in
total) and situates them within the broader contexts of both the
artist’s time and our own. These reproductions of Krieghoff’s
paintings resonate with bright color, activity, and the artist’s
evident pleasure in the people and landscapes he chose to celebrate.

Reid’s critical and biographical essay, “Cornelius Krieghoff: The
Development of a Canadian Artist,” presents a fascinating portrait of
both the artist and the society that inspired him. Ramsay Cook’s essay
provides a fresh interpretation of Krieghoff’s work in light of the
contemporaray social attitudes and political issues. Franзois-Marc
Gagnon connects the images with European traditions.

Krieghoff: Images of Canada has been beautifully produced in large
format on fine paper, with the greatest attention to detail.