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The Art of Heming
The work of Arthur Heming was a highlight of last year's McMichael Gallery showing of canoe art
By MICHAEL PEAKE
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The cover of Eric MorseÕs book. His choice of Heming was a telling one.
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Into the Wild, last year's show of canoeing art at the McMichael Gallery north of Toronto was an eyeopener. Many of the wide variety of styles of paintings which incorporated the canoe were familiar, most were not. There were the superb Frances Hopkins works, the muted Emily Carrs, Colville, Tom Thompson and others of both lesser and well-known artists representing that most Canadian of icons-the canoe.
But for me, the highlight of the display came early, a few feet inside the door. There in magnificent and vibrant tones measuring about four feet across was a canoeing masterpiece by Arthur Heming titled Mackenzie Crossing the Rockies.
It turned out that the painting has just been cleaned, and indeed looked as though it had been painted that week. For me, it's what art and canoeing are all about. Not the photographic representation of actual facts but a clearly dramatized and stylistically powerful image. No, you could not run rapids like that. But you could imagine that if you did it would look like that.
I was familiar with Heming for his picture on the cover of Eric Morse's 1969 book, Fur Trade Canoe Routes of Canada /Then and Now. There, a similar painting, privately owned, called Canadian Express, shows a North canoe running improbable rapids. At the end of this very satisfying show I repaired to the gift shop to dole out the forty bucks for the slim but beautiful catalogue.
Imagine my surprise, and dismay, when I discovered the Mackenzie painting was not in the catalogue. Nor was any reproduction of it available in the gift shop. But why? Perhaps some secretive owner had hidden it for years only allowing it to surface at this one show with no reproduction rights. Surprise Number Two. The painting is owned by the Government of Ontario who purchased it in 1932, the year it was painted. It hangs secretly in the suite of the lieutenant-governor of Ontario at Queen's Park in Toronto, the provincial legislature. Though I have been there many times, I'd never seen it. The same thing goes for the above painting The Whiskey Smuggler. It too hangs in Queens Park, though perhaps more appropriately, outside the door of the premier!
HemingÕs sketches (below as well) from the third edition of the classic Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada by J. B. Tyrrell.
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Now why does a fabulous painting owned by the people of Ontario remain in the dark? I did receive permission to reprint them here but not on our website, even as a very small viewing file. It all fits in with the unjust legacy of Arthur Heming (1870-1940) who, while a friend and contemporary of the Group of Seven, never gained that group's lasting fame.
Arthur Henry Howard Heming was born near Hamilton,Ontario. He had an early gift for athletics and art and began his wilderness trips at the age of 16. He began submitting his trip drawings to American magazines such as Harper's Weekly which began using them. He continued his art studies in New York and London.
During that time, Heming was told he was partially colour blind. Fearing to make an improper or incorrect colour choice, he incredibly began to work exclusively in black, white and yellow until he was 60 years old! It was then determined that he was NOT colour blind and Heming began a 10 year career in colour.
Heming also wrote-his first book,Spirit Lake, which was published in 1907. He subsequently published The Drama of the Forest (1921) and The Living Forest (1925). He continued his northern travels and illustration work. Among his northern journeys; he accompanied noted gentleman adventurer Caspar Whitney to the Barrengrounds, patrolled with the Royal North West Mounted Police in the mountains, and altogether travelled 550 miles by raft, 1000 miles by dog team, 1700 miles by snowshoe and 3300 miles by canoe.
Over the years his work was widely displayed and much honoured though he has become largely forgotten by the public of today, much like another contemporary Ernest Thompson Seaton. Why? Who knows; fate, luck, the whims of popularity. The real reason probably lies in the snobby art world. Heming was, and is, considered by many not so much an "artist" as an "illustrator" And as such he is relegated to a lower rung of artistic merit.
From this writer's perspective it is indeed a shame. But Heming leaves a strong legacy. His books are still readily available through used dealers at reasonable prices. His paintings are harder to find but pop up occasionally as in the case of the McMichael exhibit. The fact remains that Heming is deserving of more notice-even close to 60 years after his death.
The main difference in his style compared to the Group of Seven is that he included people in the paintings. They were the people of the north, natives, Mounties, trappers, those who lived and work there. This is not to say that Heming was not a success. He was quite well recognized in his time and had several successful showings in England where his paintings were always snapped up. Even today, his canvasses can sell for $50,000.
In a 1940 article on Heming in The Beaver, W.J. Phillips, a respected Canadian artist, quoted a profile on Heming from the art magazine The Connoisseur.
"Through his activities as traveller, hunter, illustrator, author and painter, he has acquired an international reputation. He possesses an astonishing vigorous style, the more unique because it owes nothing to any classified school or tradition, He revels in the dramatic incidents of field and forest, interpreting them in boldly emphasized patterns and in sweeping and strongly marked rhythms-the sense of which doubtless came to him through his observations of the movement of wild things against the northern background of snow and crystal-clear air."
Phillips was right about Heming's talents and abilities. He was wrong in one thing, however. He closed his article with, "At any rate he has many more years left him of active labour, for he is still strong and vigorous." A month after the article appeared, Heming died.
The argument between the artistic merits of an illustrator versus an artist will continue. Nevertheless, Heming-the writer, illustrator and artist-deserves more of our attention.
This story first appeared in Che-Mun Outfit 96 in 1999.
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