Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
To See What He Saw: J.E.H. MacDonald and the O'Hara Years, 1924-1932

To See What He Saw: J.E.H. MacDonald and the O'Hara Years, 1924-1932

Munn, Stanley
Cucman, Patricia
Ewen, Anne

Hardcover

Art HistoryCanadian ArtGeneral Art

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 1773272500
ISBN13: 9781773272504
Publisher: Figure 1 Publishing
Published: Aug 6 2024
Pages: 352
Weight: 6.35
Height: 1.30 Width: 10.00 Depth: 12.10
Language: English
If the function of the artist is to see, the first duty of the critic is to understand what the artist saw.

- J.E.H. MacDonald

To See What He Saw focuses on the Lake O'Hara work produced by English-Canadian artist and Group of Seven member James Edward Hervey (J.E.H.) MacDonald, R.C A. (1873-1932) between 1924 and 1932. The book documents MacDonald's seven trips to Yoho National Park in the Rocky Mountains of eastern British Columbia, Canada, and presents a detailed catalogue of the resulting en plein air sketches and the subsequent studio works completed during the last nine years of his life.

The book features more than 200 of MacDonald's western works from this period, organized geographically with en plein air sketches and studio work illustrated side by side. Each sketch is accompanied by at least one present-day photograph, many of which are taken from the exact rocky perch where MacDonald sat. Save for the forest growth since the 1920s, this pairing enables the viewer to see what MacDonald saw, and to understand how he processed the landscape before him. The book includes full transcripts of diaries, essays, and poems from which detailed, chronological descriptions of MacDonald's seven trips have been compiled. Relevant excerpts and original research further contextualize and illuminate the artist's practices for specific sketches wherever possible.

Of interest to Group of Seven and Canadian art collectors, curators, historians, students, and enthusiasts alike, this book is produced in conjunction with a 2024 exhibition at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, Alberta. To See What He Saw offers a comprehensive examination of this esteemed artist's painting process, finished works, and mindset over this period, and provides a unique lens through which to view MacDonald's O'Hara work--a perspective that has not previously been fully explored in exhibition or in publication.

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