Name/Title
Mt. Baker from IslandEntry/Object ID
2014.07.11Description
Painting
This image depicts Mount Baker in Washington State, U.S.A., viewed from south Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada. It is a partially treed coastal landscape with a First Nations group enjoying a campout in the centre foreground, looking out across Haro Strait over the San Juan Islands to the far shore and the snow-covered North Cascades Mountain Range. The focus of this painting is Mount Baker, actually a glacier-covered active volcano with the second-most thermally active crater in the range after Mount St. Helens.Artwork Details
Medium
Oil on panelSubject Place
Region
Pacific NorthwestContinent
North AmericaContext
Mount Baker was well known as a natural and important landmark by First Nations peoples of the Pacific Northwest who called it by a number of names such as Koma Kulshan or Kulshan (white sentinel or puncture wound) and Quck Sam-ik (white mountain). And by the mid 1850s, Mount Baker's pyramid shape had been well-documented and was recognized by early European explorers and fur traders.Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
George Henry Southwell (1865-1961)Role
PainterDate made
n.d.Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Bilbao, Spain, George Henry Southwell was a Canadian artist noteworthy for his paintings of the B.C. interior in his role as provincial artist and for his rotunda murals of the B.C. Parliament Buildings in Victoria. Southwell studied at the Kensington Art School and the Slade in London, England. He did murals for the 1888 Paris and 1908 Brussels Expositions depicting British industries, later immigrating to Canada, arriving in Vancouver in 1910. He then spent some years sketching and painting the B.C. interior, as well as doing murals such as those done in collaboration with the historical scene painter John Innes (1863-1941) for the David Spencer Store in Vancouver, and illustrating books. He was then employed as provincial artist by the B.C. Government Publicity Bureau and spent some years traveling in the province painting some 200 works of B.C life and scenery. These works were reportedly sent around the world to publicize the province.
In 1932, Southwell was commissioned to paint murals in the rotunda of the Parliament Buildings depicting scenes from B.C.’s history from 1792 to 1843. The work was completed: however, decades later, controversy arose over the depiction of the West Coast First Nations peoples in the murals, which was considered to be demeaning. As a result, the murals have been hidden from view behind false walls after their restoration.
Southwell exhibited at the Vancouver Exhibition in 1926 and 1930. He also exhibited with the Island Arts and Crafts Society from 1931 to 1936, and in the 1923, and 1929 B.C. Society of Fine Arts exhibitions. Much later he showed work in the 1945 B.C. Artists exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Southwell died in Garden Bay, on the Sunshine Coast, north of Vancouver at the age of 95.Inscription/Signature/Marks
Type
Signature, LabelLocation
Signed lower left in deep red: G H SouthwellTranscription
Printed framer's label on red/pink paper:
Pictures, Frames, Mouldings, etc. / Salmon's Arts/ 1415 Government St. / Victoria, B.C. / Ph Empire 1552
To right of label "#5869" in pencil
Framers notes? on cardboard - 5969 / 2 1/2 Black cedar / noglass / Sept. 29Dimensions
Dimension Description
Visible imageHeight
39.4 cmWidth
49.5 cmAcquisition
Acquisition Method
PurchaseDate
Jul 20, 2010Notes
Likely Lunds Jul, 2010 - Lot #691Relationships
Related Entries
Notes
By George Henry Southwell:
2014.07.11 Mountain Landscape
2016.01.09 Lake and Mountain View
