OTTAWA.- The exhibition Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons just opened to the public and is on view at the National Gallery of Canada until July 3, 2022. This groundbreaking exhibition highlights the contribution of Canadian artists to the worldwide phenomenon of Impressionism. Featuring 108 paintings from private and public collections from across Canada and abroad, the exhibition organized by the NGC introduces visitors to the paintings of 36 Canadians, men and women, from coast to coast to coast, created between the 1880s and the late 1920s abroad or at home.

Curated by the National Gallery of Canada’s Senior Curator of Canadian Art, Katerina Atanassova, the exhibition received critical acclaimed in Munich, Germany; Lausanne, Switzerland; and Montpellier, France where it was first presented in 2019 in an adapted version for a European audience unaware of the contribution of Canadian artists to the Impressionist movement.

The exhibition presented in Ottawa is organized around seven major themes while following a chronological progression. The narrative traces some of the earliest paintings produced by Canadian artists in and around Paris or Barbizon en plein-air and then follows them on their trips to major painting sites traditionally associated with French Impressionism. Locations such as Giverny, Moret-sur-Loing, Grez-sur-Loing and scenes along the river Seine speak of artistic experiences in the French countryside, eventually taking the Canadians to the water’s edge in Brittany and Normandy. Visitors will then follow in the footsteps of the Canadian Impressionists beyond France, to sites in Italy, Spain, and the Mediterranean region, as far as the coast of North Africa, and to the Caribbean. “For those Canadian painters, who fully embraced the tenets of Impressionism, the challenge came not from foreign sites but upon their return home—when the knowledge and experiences gained during their travels and studies abroad were put to the test through adapting and transforming the impressionistic approach to painting to the new reality, “explained Katerina Atanassova.

From gallery to gallery, visitors will explore the various themes through paintings celebrating everyday life, whether in the metropolitan city of Paris, or at the popular seaside resorts along the coasts, or in studies of women and children at work or leisure. The final section of the exhibition looks at the contributions of Canadian Impressionists upon their return home, as they adapt to and embrace modernism at home. Along with the late Impressionists, visitors will notice the inclusion of paintings by members of the two best-known groups of Canadian modern painters—the Beaver Hall Group, in Montreal, and the Group of Seven, in Toronto. The exhibition also gives nods to certain individual interests towards other modernist approaches to painting such Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Art Nouveau, who further enlightened the development of the arts in Canada during this period.

The exhibition features paintings by nine women artists, Mary Bell (1864–1951), Florence Carlyle (1864–1923), Emily Carr (1871–1945), Prudence Heward (1896–1947), H. Mabel May (1877–1971), Helen McNicoll (1879–1915), Kathleen M. Morris (1893–1986), Laura Muntz (1860–1930), and Sophie Pemberton (1869–1959), alongside their male counterparts, Henri Beau (1863–1949), Franklin P. Brownell (1857–1946), William B. Bruce (1859–1906), William H. Clapp (1879–1954), Maurice Cullen (1866–1934), Clarence Gagnon (1881–1942), Lawren S. Harris (1885–1970), Ernest Lawson (1873–1939), James W. Morrice (1865–1924), Paul Peel (1860–1892), Robert Pilot (1898–1967), Arthur Rozaire (1879–1922) and Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Côté (1869–1937) whose works are featured in the exhibition.