James Henderson | Wicite Owapi Wicasa » Place & Landscape

Evening

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:42:55 +0000

Henderson was fond of painting the Qu’Appelle Valley at different times of year and at different times of the day and night. His nocturnes often show the moon over the Qu’Appelle River near his studio, or rising above the hills of the valley. The nocturne was a favourite theme of late nineteenth century British art as it was suited for an exploration of vague and undefined forms, atmospheric effects, and subtle tonal harmonies. This can be clearly seen in the work of Robert Macaulay Stevenson (1854–1952), one of the painters associated with the Glasgow Boys, whose nocturnes resemble Henderson’s and whose work Henderson may have seen in Glasgow and London. Although it’s unlikely Henderson would have known the work of American artist Pinkham Ryder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Pinkham_Ryder (1847–1917), Evening shares in his sensibility and technique of using layers of thick paint. Ryder’s mystical seascapes are dominated by evening skies with the moon crossed by mist or scudding clouds. Evening likewise evokes a scene of trees shrouded in shadow and quivering with a kind of unknown dream life. The clouds move in an arch over the trees like a living thing influenced by the moon, which rises through pale clouds into a sere and unutterably peaceful landscape. This work appears to be a view from his studio looking south to Cemetery Hill. In the mid ground are barely discernible buildings and trees masked in a shroud of scumbled pigment that creates a sense of dense material, like the woods themselves.
-Dan Ring

Evening, c. 1930
Oil on canvas
30.6 x 35.9 cm
Collection of the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, SK.

The Marsh

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:06:56 +0000

This work is a large-scale exhibition canvas that shows the marsh at the end of Pasqua Lake, before the building of the Echo Lake Dam in 1941–2, located just east of the Henderson home in Fort Qu’Appelle. The dam raised the level of Echo and Pasqua Lakes by as much as three feet and flooded the marsh, a traditional Indigenous hunting area also used by settlers for the same purpose. The Antepa Club was located near here as well. This remains a contested issue today and negotiations are underway to compensate the Pasqua reserve for the flooding. In this way, Henderson’s painting is an important historical document that reflects the changing realities of life in the Qu’Appelle Valley.
-Dan Ring

James Henderson
The Marsh, c. 1918
oil on canvas
61.0 x 76.2 cm
Collection of James Lanigan, Calgary, AB.

Antepa Shooting Club

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:42:42 +0000

This exclusive men’s shooting club, now demolished, was on the south shore of Pasqua Lake, the largest of the Qu’Appelle chain, west of Fort Qu’Appelle. Founded by the wealthy business and professional elite of Regina and area, such as James Henderson’s patron Norman Mackenzie and William Morris Graham, the Indian Agent at Qu’Appelle and later Western Indian Commissioner. Members and guests could fish or hunt game birds on the marshes at the end of the lake. Visiting dignitaries, including the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII), were also invited there while on official visits to the province. The evenings were spent in feasting and drinking, and guests would sleep in small rooms off the main banqueting hall. Henderson painted the Club a number of times and may have accompanied members there. Scandalously, W. M. Graham’s resignation as the Western Indian Commissioner was connected to his approval of a liquor permit for the Club, thus violating federal law in regards to drinking alcohol on Reserve lands, which put him in direct conflict with the policies he was enforcing.
-Dan Ring

For more on the Antepa Shooting Club and the scandal concerning W. M. Graham, see E. Brian Titley, A Narrow Vision: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs in Canada, UBC Press, 1986, pp. 191–196.

James Henderson
The Antepa Shooting Club, c. 1920
Oil on canvas
27.0 x 32.0 cm
Collection of Don and Claire Kramer, Regina, SK.

Bend in the Creek

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:07:22 +0000

This work, with its loosely painted bright blues and greens and clear light evoking spring or early summer in the Qu’Appelle Valley, is a good example of Henderson’s interest in the local scene and in light and colour. It is influenced by his experience of the work of the Glasgow Boys, such as Edward Arthur Walton (1860–1922) whose paintings he could have seen in Scotland before he left for London and in exhibitions in London after he moved there. It also shows the influence of the English Impressionists, such as Phillip Wilson Steer (1860–1942), who were members of the New English Art Club and with whom Henderson exhibited in 1909. These artists incorporated aspects of French Impressionism, the new Scottish art, and their own landscape traditions, from Constable to Turner, into a new colourist and atmospheric art. While many of the Glasgow Boys and the English Impressionists focused on the figure in the landscape, such as farm workers or city strollers, Henderson limited figures of humans or animals to a secondary position, often as small, almost decorative elements, such as a mother and child walking on a road or cows grazing on a hillside or in a coulee.
-Dan Ring

Bend in the Creek, c. 1925
Oil on canvas
49.9 x 60.0 cm
Collection of James Lanigan, Calgary, AB.

Untitled (CNR Coulee in autumn)

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:17:30 +0000

Both of these works were shown in the Qu’Appelle: Tales of Two Valleys exhibition organized by the Mendel Art Gallery in 2002. The smaller work was formerly Untitled (autumn valley vista), a name given to it by its owner but when seen side by side in the exhibition with the larger work, it was apparent that they were both paintings of the same location but from a slightly different perspective. When Troy Mamer and I were researching the sites Henderson painted in the Qu’Appelle Valley, we visited Peter and Jean Flett, who live in a turn-of-the-century brick and fieldstone farmhouse where their family has lived for three generations. The Flett farm is reached by the Mackie Road, named after the local RCMP constable, a place that Henderson also painted in a number of works. The farm is near to one of the most majestic coulees in the Qu’Appelle, with grazing cattle and a meandering creek that drains into both Echo and Mission Lakes. This coulee was most likely the location for many of Henderson paintings as it is easily accessible from Fort Qu’Appelle. However, the view near the Flett farm that overlooked the CNR line was not the view Henderson painted in the above works, one that looks to the line and not above it. Mr. Flett indicated that the old highway from Fort Qu’Appelle ran up the hill on the other side of the coulee. The old road that is now blocked off goes through the Fletts’ property and they gave us permission to explore the other side of the coulee. The next day, Troy and I crossed Highway 35 and drove past the Cemetery Hill Road and reached the old highway. We then walked past the barricade and up the hill and around a bend in the road when we came to the exact spot where Henderson had painted these particular works. Henderson never owned a car and would hire a local man to drive him to his favourite painting spots near his home, prearranging a pickup time. He would then sketch the main compositions and colour harmonies of the scene. In this case, he would have set up on a small shoulder off the road to paint while cars passed by with some frequency. It was then that we realized how faithful his landscape paintings were to the outlines of the topography, contours and landforms of the Qu’Appelle Valley.
-Dan Ring

James Henderson
Untitled (CNR Coulee in autumn), formerly Untitled (autumn valley vista), c. 1932
oil on canvas
35.6 x 40.6
Collection of James Lanigan, Calgary, AB.

James Henderson
Winter Morning, CNR Coulee, Qu’Appelle Valley, Sask. c. 1932
oil on canvas
61.0 x 76.2
Collection of James Lanigan, Calgary, AB.

End of the Winter

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:44:37 +0000

Henderson both sketched on site and used grided-off photographs as the basis for his portraits and landscapes; these sketches were developed into finished work in his studio on the banks of the Qu’Appelle River. Henderson’s poetic interpretation of the valley was profoundly influenced by nineteenth century aesthetics, reflecting the influences of the Glasgow School, Symbolism, and Impressionism. He was very interested in documenting the changing seasons and times of day and while he repeated compositions, such as this view of a coulee with a road and a stream in early spring, he was remarkably sensitive to the changing quality of light and geography of the Qu’Appelle. The End of the Winter (also known as The End of Winter) is typical of many of his winter scenes and was included in A Century of Canadian Art, mounted by London’s Tate Gallery in 1938. The studio sketch for this work is included in this exhibition as well, and while the composition is quite close to this one Henderson made significant changes to the colours and sky in the larger work.
-Dan Ring

James Henderson
The End of the Winter, c. 1930
Oil on canvas
61.1 x 76.5
Collection of National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Gift of P. D. Ross, Ottawa, 1932.

James Henderson
Untitled (studio study for the NGC, The End of Winter), c. 1930-31
oil on panel
23.0 x 28.8 cm
Collection of James Lanigan, Calgary, AB.

Road to the Lake

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:57:22 +0000

Henderson was fond of building up views of distant hills with lakes in the mid-ground and a foreground animated by light moving over the grass and the framing tress. This composition was used in such paintings as Road to the Lake, where the foreground is occupied by a rural road, with small figures, who can be identified as Indigenous by their dress, descending toward the brilliant blue of the lake below. Often these views are shown from a slightly higher vantage point, which indicate the spot he chose to do his sketching.

James Henderson
Road to the Lake, c. 1935
oil on canvas
45.7 x 61.0 cm
Collection of James Lanigan, Calgary, AB.

Comparative Landscape Images

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:46:02 +0000

Through the research of the curatorial team, many of the sites where Henderson painted were clearly identified, including exact locations on Cemetery Hill, Nose Hill, the CNR Railway Coulee, and the road to Camp Knowles, which are all accessed by roads such as the old highway out of the Valley. In a number of comparative photographs taken from more or less where Henderson would have painted these works, it is apparent that he was very attentive to details of topography and that the contours of hills and views of the Valley are faithfully depicted and not invented. Even when he was using a freer and sketchier application of paint there is a fidelity to the land forms that he was experiencing rather than just a formulaic representation of the valley landscape.

James Henderson
Untitled (View of Mission Lake and Camp Knowles), c. 1920
oil on canvas
60.6 x 76.5 cm
Collection of Fort Qu’Appelle Historical Society, donated by Marion Hamilton.

James Henderson (from top)
Untitled (CNR Coulee in autumn), formerly Untitled (autumn valley vista), c. 1932
oil on canvas
35.6 x 40.6
Collection of James Lanigan, Calgary, AB.

Winter Morning, CNR Coulee, Qu’Appelle Valley, Sask., c. 1932
oil on canvas
61.0 x 76.2
Collection of James Lanigan, Calgary, AB.

James Henderson
Storm Clearing Qu’Appelle Valley, c. 1928
oil on canvas
35.0 x 39.9 cm
Collection of James Lanigan, Calgary, Alberta.