Lot 54
ALEXANDER YOUNG JACKSON, O.S.A., R.C.A.
Lot 54 Details
ALEXANDER YOUNG JACKSON, O.S.A., R.C.A.
LIEVIN, MARCH 15TH, 1918
oil on panel
signed; signed and inscribed “3rd BRG ART. HQS” (3rd Brigade Artillery Headquarters), and “Lievin, Mar 15-18” on the reverse
8.5 ins x 10.5 ins; 21.6 cms x 26.7 cms
Estimate $12,000-$15,000
Additional Images
Provenance:
Dominion Gallery, Montreal
Private Collection, Montreal
Literature:
Susan Butlin, “Landscape as Memorial: A.Y. Jackson and the Landscape of the Western Front, 1917-1918”, Canadian Military History, Vol.5, no.2 (Autumn 1996) pages 62-70, and figure 2 for a related canvas in the collection of the Canadian War Museum entitled Jeanne d’Arc, Hill 70 in the Distance (1918), reproduced.
Note:
Butlin notes that “Jackson was chosen as the first Canadian to be assigned to duty as an official war artist for the Canadian War Memorials Fund,” which ultimately would employ 116 artists recording Canada’s war effort at home and abroad. She continues, “While [Jackson] rejected the earlier cannon of war painting which tended to romanticize battle in ‘death and glory’ epic paintings, Jackson’s first depictions of the front line were nonetheless picturesque landscapes or sensitive studies,” such as this lot.
Butlin adds that during the late winter and early spring of 1918, “Jackson was attached to the 3rd Canadian Artillery Brigade at Lievin.”