Name/Title
Giants of British Columbia: Trees and MountainsEntry/Object ID
2014.07.12Description
Drawing
This landscape scene depicts a massive tree in the foreground that frames the treed layered hills and mountains reflected in the water, as well as the clouds and snow-peaked mountains in the distance. The serene image has an illustration quality in that it appears to faithfully and clearly represent a landscape as seen, albeit with a subtle studied approach and palette. The specific location in B.C. is unknown.Artwork Details
Medium
Pastel on paper boardSubject Place
Region
Pacific NorthwestContinent
North AmericaContext
B.C., with its proximity to ocean and mountains, its temperate rainforest climates and 12-month growing season, is home to some of the biggest trees on Earth. Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, Pacific silver fir, Western hemlock, and Western red and yellow cedar trees can grow to monumental sizes and live to be more than 1,500 years old. These forests also provide homes to a wide diversity of flora and fauna, which co- exist in complex, interdependent and dynamic relationships. Unfortunately, many of these forest environments are threatened by controversial logging and hunting practices, development, accelerated rates of climate-induced floods and wildfires and more. Ironically, these very forests are needed to ensure our climate resiliency, and there are often differing views on how to successfully safeguard and support the natural environment and its various ecosystems, economic development and human activity.
The Great Bear Rainforest Agreement of 2016 is one example that aims to conserve one of B.C.'s unique and beautiful central coast areas for generations to come. The province of British Columbia, First Nations, environmental groups and the forestry industry agreed to protect 85% of the 6.4 million hectare Great Bear Rainforest from industrial logging. The remaining 15% would still be subject to logging under stringent conditions. The Great Bear Rainforest is an area of international ecological significance that contains one-quarter of the world’s remaining ancient and unspoiled coastal temperate rainforest. It is home to many species of marine life, birds, plants, trees and mammals including the Kermode or Spirit bear, a unique subspecies of black bear, in which 10% of cubs display a recessive white-coloured coat.Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Bertram Digby Robinson (1880-1953)Role
ArtistDate made
Sep 1931Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Rothesay, New Brunswick, Bertram Digby Robinson was listed as a salesman in New York City ca.1915. He was appointed as a Mate, Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve and in 1917 served in HMCS Rainbow as "Additional for Training and Disposal", later demobilized.
Robinson was married in 1927 and lived in Esquimalt, a municipality of Great Victoria, where he was private secretary to Norman Yarrow of Yarrows Shipyard for 32 years. He exhibited with the Island Arts and Crafts Society, 1924-5, and did illustration work such as for his wife Leigh Burpee's, publication “Esquimalt: Place of Shoaling Waters”. The word 'Esquimalt' is a transliteration of the First Nations North Straits Salish phrase for 'place of shoaling waters'.Inscription/Signature/Marks
Type
Inscription, Signature, DateTranscription
Titled, signed and dated upper right verso paper board in pen and ink script:
Coast of British Columbia
Giants of British Columbia
Trees and Mountains
B. Digby Robinson
September 1931
Printing on paper board verso: Faced with WHATMAN Hand-made Paper / MADE IN ENGLAND
And printed framer's label: THE ART EMPORIUM / H. HOOD, Proprietor / PICTURES and PICTURE FRAMING 1103 Robson Street Vancouver, B.C.
Note: The Art Emporium gallery, started by early Vancouver's top photographer, Philip Timms RPS (1874-1973) in 1897, was one of the earliest art and framing stores in the city, opening on Georgia Street and is certainly the oldest, still operating (as of 2024) on South Granville St. at W. 13th Ave.Dimensions
Dimension Description
Visible imageHeight
52 cmWidth
17 cmAcquisition
Acquisition Method
PurchaseDate
2014
