CW (Charles William) Jefferys - 1869-1951

Left a fabulous gouache variation of the finally published scene above, which displays all CW's talents at composition, capturing the rugged beauty of Canada, and his famous depictions of Canadians of all kinds as robust healthy characters, convincing us absolutely that without tough Scots like Mackenzie, and his men, Canada could never have prospered or been developed. The Canada of today was built on their sense of adventure and enterprise, in promoting the fur trade relationship with Indians from coast to coast.

CW, like JD Kelly and other historical artists, would produce originals in gouache left, then alter elements to suit clients or changing artistic tastes.

CW knew that not all Canadian history was a rosy romp between the races, that contact between French and English, whites and Indians often degenerated into fights for survival, for both communities.

He painted an unforgettable burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal in 1849 by an English mob angry that the government had decided to compensate French people whose property had been damaged in the recent rebellions of French insurgents against the autocratic English ruling classes in Quebec.

CW's depiction of the terror of the Iroquois attacks near Lachine in 1641, when scores of French settlers were killed, leaves little to the imagination, and certainly captures the reality of this side of the story in stark and unforgettable detail.

There is something horrific going on in every part of the panel.

CW's command of the entire surface of the panel, putting something of interest into receding planes of the canvas, gives one a terrific sense of depth and perspective that only the best artists will attempt, let alone succeed at.

Don't look for this sign of superior artistry in a Riopelle... What you get with him, in the lower right hand corner of his works, is exactly what you'll get everywhere else on his canvases: same depth, same interest, same colours, same pattern... Ugghh... No wonder even he gave up trying to give his art titles, hoping the buyer would come up with his own, since he had created so many similar pieces he had run out of names long ago...

Charles William Jefferys (1869 –1951) was a Canadian painter, illustrator, author, and teacher, best known as an artist of historical paintings. Born in England, Jefferys arrived in Toronto, Ontario (after living in Philadelphia and Hamilton, Ontario) with his family around 1880. After attending school, he apprenticed with the Toronto Lithography Company from 1885 to 1890. From 1889 to 1892 he worked for the Toronto Globe as an illustrator and artist. From 1893 to 1901, he worked for the New York Herald. Returning to Toronto, he became a magazine and book illustrator. Along with other artists, he co-founded the Graphic Arts Club (later named the Canadian Society of Graphic Art), which by the 1940s became the primary artists' group in Canada. As well, from 1912 to 1939 he taught painting and drawing in the Department of Architecture at the University of Toronto. During World War I he was commissioned by the Canadian War Records department to paint soldiers training at Camp Petawawa and Niagara. Left in the yard of the family home, in 1924, CW's children pose behind their house, that today has been surrounded by concrete and the nonstop roar of traffic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two classic Jefferys artistic highlights: his exciting colourful tableaux from Canadian history, like the Acadians being informed by the British, in 1755, that they will be transported from their homelands in today's Nova Scotia, to far-off Louisiana, and one of his famous, black and white sketches showing detailed portrayals of Canadian heritage artefacts of people, places, and events from Canadian history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left: Champlain on the Ottawa, 1613, holding an astrolabe he lost, and which was found in the 1930s; above habitants paying seigneurial dues.

Above: rebels marching on (York) Toronto in 1837 and Red River carts with CW's historical notations in his famous illustrative books The Picture Gallery of Canadian History which immortalized, visually and educationally, the people, places, and events of Canadian history and heritage for countless generation of Canadians of all ages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many images that CW drew or painted - like the rebels - are burned inerasably into the psyche of countless Canadians from their earliest childhood days on, when public school teachers taught Canadian history with them, to their days as adults, visiting museums with their own children, and encountering CW's images there.

Right: CW portrays what can rightfully be called Canada's first permanent buildings, which Champlain constructed near Annapolis Royal, in Nova Scotia, in 1605.

Parks Canada has rebuilt the original habitation on the same site, which today is off the beaten path up a lengthy dead end road east of Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia.

The site is graced by a marvellous bust of Champlain by Louis-Philippe Hébert, a contemporary of CW Jefferys, who created some of Canada's finest busts and public monuments in bronze in Victorian and Edwardian Canada.

In 1608 Champlain changed locations drastically, taking his new group of settlers further to the north and west, deep into the mouth of the St. Lawrence River and founding Quebec.