La Fille de Bordeaux Series [White blouse girl]

'La Fille de Bordeaux' Series [White blouse girl], 1984. Watercolour on paper by John (Jack) Craig Seaton Wilkinson, RCA (1927-2007)

'La Fille de Bordeaux' Series [White blouse girl], 1984. Watercolour on paper by John (Jack) Craig Seaton Wilkinson, RCA (1927-2007)

Name/Title

La Fille de Bordeaux Series [White blouse girl]

Entry/Object ID

2023.09.01

Description

Painting This Modernist painting centres on a stylish dark-haired young woman in a white blouse walking down a narrow street. She is shown from the waist up, walking away from the viewer, with her head in profile turned to the right looking back. Tall buildings and metal fencing are indicated on the sides of the street in blue-grey shadows and historic buildings and trees are shown ahead in the sunlight. The location is Bordeaux, France.

Type of Painting

Watercolour on paper

Artwork Details

Subject Place

Region

Western Europe

Continent

Europe

Made/Created

Artist Information

Artist

John (Jack) Craig Seaton Wilkinson, RCA (1927-2007)

Role

Artist

Date made

1984

Time Period

20th Century

Notes

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Born in Windsor, Ontario, John Craig Seaton “Jack” Wilkinson was an influential Canadian artist and arts administrator. Raised in England, he studied architecture, painting and sculpture at Westham Municipal College, Newport College of Art and Medway College, where he received a diploma in painting. During World War II he served in the Royal Air Force coming to Canada in 1955. Wilkinson twice ran his own art school in Victoria, but perhaps his greatest mark on the local and provincial art scene came while working in the 1960s as staff artist and senior architectural draughtsman in the Provincial Department of Public Works. As chairman of the Provincial Committee on Art for two years, Wilkinson launched a period of intense activity with art policy for the provincial government and oversaw the purchase of 600 works for the provincial collection, and also arranged major art commissions for new provincial buildings. He was involved in Victoria’s Centennial Square revitalization and development project, designing the huge focal point fountain with mosaic monolith totems in 1965. It was commissioned and gifted by the municipalities of Saanich, Oak Bay and Esquimalt in commemoration of the Centennial of the founding of the City of Victoria in 1862. He was also known for other major commissions, including a large bronze sculpture for the B.C. Provincial School for the Deaf in Burnaby, murals at the B.C. Institute of Technology, sculptures for the Quesnel courthouse and Bull River Fish Hatchery, and the Royal B.C. Museum’s Carillon tower. As of 1975 he devoted himself to painting full-time and exhibited during the following years at the B.C. legislature, the University of British Columbia, the Vancouver and Victoria city art galleries, and other galleries in Alberta and Ontario. He exhibited with Victoria-based Modernist art group The Limners, and in the exhibition "Art in Victoria” 1960/1986 at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

Edition

Edition

'La Fille de Bordeaux' Series

Edition Size

Unknown

Notes

Assigned [White blouse girl] for purposes of identification. See also 2018.08.16

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Type

Signature, Date, Title

Location

Signed and dated in image lower right: J.W. 84 Jack Wilkinson Titled in pencil below: 'La Fille de Bordeaux' Series

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Visible image

Height

43.2 cm

Width

30.5 cm

Acquisition

Acquisition Method

Purchase

Date

Sep 6, 2023

Notes

See file

Relationships

Related Entries

Notes

By John (Jack) Craig Seaton Wilkinson: 2015.03.01 Portrait of Harry De Zwager 2018.08.16 La Fille de Bordeaux Series [Red scarf girl] 2018.09.01 La Fille de Bordeaux Series [White blouse girl]