Canadian painting has long been a hidden gem. Although international observers are certainly aware of Native Canadian art and the important Group of Seven, the vast majority of Canadian artists have escaped wider notice and recognition. Part of the problem stems from the fact that noteworthy book collections of Canadian paintings have been scarce.
J. Russell Harper’s seminal work, Painting in Canada: A History (1966), started the long-awaited journey of introducing Canadian art to the world. Dennis Reid, a fellow art historian who worked at Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario and Ottawa’s National Gallery of Canada, soon followed with A Concise History of Canadian Painting (1973). Reid’s book was the first in-depth examination of the art of the great white north. It brought Canadian painting to life in a way no other author—not even Harper—had previously been able to capture, and scant few have ever since.
Now in its third edition, A Concise History of Canadian Painting encompasses everything from seventeenth-century religious art to modern Canadian artists like Carol Wainio and Betty Goodwin. As is to be expected, some of the paintings are exceptional while others are, shall we say, an acquired taste. That being said, Reid’s primary goal remains the same: “to give a compelling picture of the considerable diversity of approaches and of the remarkable level of personal accomplishment that has maintained painting’s critical place in the evolving history of art in Canada.”
The early periods of Canadian painting had a distinctly European feel.
