“Beardmore” revisited: Jens Bloch’s dark Norwegian past

Fresh information from a Norwegian archeologist adds new dimensions to the man who brought the "Beardmore" Viking relics to Canada

A.Y. Jackson’s “unknown” landscape

I visited McMaster University's Museum of Fine Arts in February 2020, to view several early (pre World War I) works by A.Y. Jackson. One of them, Girl in the Middy, an oil sketch of Rosa Breithaupt, herself painting by the water's edge, contained a bonus painting on the obverse side: a landscape catalogued as "unknown" in subject matter. Jackson's fellow member of the Group of Seven, A.J. Casson, actually wrote (in ink!) on it: "The sketch on the reverse side could possibly be an early AY Jackson." That clearly seems to be the case. But what does it depict?

“The Place of Stone” review in Winterthur Portfolio

"A timely contribution that provides a historical perspective on current discussions about who is and who is not American, and about whose history matters, and raises questions about political uses of the past, historical imaginings, and evidentiary constraints."

Losing Tom

After a promising interview with Lord Beaverbrook on his candidacy as a war artist, Private A.Y. Jackson returned to his base in August 1917 and shocking news: Tom Thomson was dead.

A.Y. Jackson and Scotland’s artists

Charles Hodge Mackie, Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice. By 1912. National Galleries, Scotland. As I researched my forthcoming book on A.Y. Jackson, Robin Rodger, a documentation officer in the collections department of the Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture, was a big help in sorting out A.Y. Jackson's relationship with several leading British...

TD Thor Wealth Management Juried Show at Quest

The TD Thor Wealth Management Juried Show opened today at Quest Art Gallery in Midland, Ontario. Quest says they had more than 300 submissions from across the country, and I'm pleased to say one of my conté drawings (Hogg Valley Rd. East of Old Fort Rd., Tiny Twp, 2018) made the final 32. You can...