Our Intellectual Strength and Weakness: A Short Historical and Critical Review of Literature, Art and Education in CanadaBourinot, John George
History
Our Intellectual Strength and Weakness: A Short Historical and Critical Review of Literature, Art and Education in Canada
Bourinot, John George
Canada -- Intellectual life; Canadian literature -- History and criticism; French-Canadian literature -- History and criticism
Macdonald Manly,
D. P. MacKillsan, J. W. Morrice, A. D. Patterson, Miss G. F. Spurr,
F. S. Challener, Paul J. Wickson, Mrs. M. B. Screiber, W. Revell, D.
Fowler, Miss E. May Martin, Miss Laura Muntz, Miss F. M. Bell-Smith,
Miss Florence Carlyle, Miss I. M. F. Adams, Owen P. Staples, Mrs. M. E.
Dignam, Charles Alexander, W. E. Atkinson, J. C. Mills, J. A. Fraser
(in New York), Carl Ahrens, W. A. Sherwood, Miss Fannie Sutherland,
T. C. V. Ede, H. Sandham (in New York), Mr. Harvey, Mr. Cruickshank,
Mr. Seavey, A. Cox, Miss Edwards, J. Griffith, Colin Scott, J. Wilson,
James Smith, C. J. Way, F. Brownell, A. P. Coleman, R. Harris, Miss
Holden and Miss Houghton. Many of these artists, whose merits, of
course, vary much, are not native Canadians. One of the strongest
landscape painters, Mr. Matthews, is an Englishman, who has now, after
some years, thoroughly understood the light and colour of Canadian
scenery. O'Brien, Brymner, L. Huot, Forbes, Forster, Pinhey, Sidney
Tully, G. Harris, Gagen, Knowles, Watson, Alexander, A. D. Patterson,
C. M. Manly, E. May Martin and George Reid are Canadians. G. T.
Berthon, who died recently in Toronto at an advanced age, and was known
as a painter of numerous portraits, the best of which are to be seen in
Osgoode Hall, was of French origin and education. Raphael is German by
birth and education. Jacobi is a painter of the Dusseldorf school, and
was at one time employed in the court of the King of Bavaria. Bruenech
is a native, I understand, of Denmark, though educated in Canada. E.
W. Grier is an Englishman by birth and education, with a knowledge of
French art derived from study in Paris. So is Ernest Thompson, who
also studied in Paris. Mower Martin is an Englishman, educated in that
country and in Canada, with whose scenery he has been always enamoured.
Carl Ahrens was born and educated in the United States. Miss Minnie
Bell and Miss Laura Muntz are among the most promising younger artists
of Canada. Both were born and received their elementary education in
Canada. Miss Bell, after studying in Paris, is now in Montreal. Miss
Muntz is still studying in Paris. Robert Harris is a native of Prince
Edward Island. Mr. N. Bourassa, who is a French Canadian artist, has
of late years devoted himself to ecclesiastical decoration. His best
work is to be seen in the architecture and decoration of the churches
of Notre Dame de Nazareth and Notre Dame de Lourdes, in Montreal, and
he has the credit of having first applied probably in America "the art
of painting to the adornment of Christian churches in the broad and
thorough manner so common at one period in central Italy." (See Dr. S.
E. Dawson's "Handbook of Canada," Montreal, 1888, pp. 183, 184.) The
influence of the French schools of painting can be seen in the best
works of Paul Peel (now dead), Forster, Harris, Geo. Reid and John
Pinhey (born at Ottawa), all of whom have had success at the salons. At
the present time there are some twenty-five Canadians, more or less,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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