| Ever since the Canadian Rockies were 'opened up' for tourism in the late 1800's, artists have been drawn by the spectacular scenery; indeed, the Canadian Pacific Railway paid artists to paint this area in order to promte tourism and thus fill their hotels. In this book Ms. Christensen presents many of the best paintings of the Canadian Rockies along with detailed instructions on how to hike to the site that the artist painted from. In addition, she includes biographical notes, exerpts from diaries, and photographs. For the history enthusiast, this is a valuable insight into an often overlooked aspect of our past; for the artist who is also a hiker, it offers an opportunity to enter the mind of the artist as he/she was forced to generalize and simplify in order to create a piece of art; and for the art lover, it offers an introduction to some of the more famous paintings done in the southern Rockies. Some of the artists presented are Carl Rungius, John Singer Sargent, A Y Jackson, the incredible Lawren Harris, Illingworth Kerr, A C Leighton, and Catherine Robb Whyte and Peter Whyte. The art works are oils, watercolours and woodcuts. I really enjoy this multi-award-winning book! It is obviously written by someone who is enthusiastic about history, art and hiking, and it has become a treasured part of my own library, one that I find myself perusing again and again. |
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