Focus Series — Pictorialism
The Focus series is an ongoing partnership between Library and Archives Canada and the National Gallery of Canada.
On View Until May 2024
National Gallery of Canada, A104a
The predominant aesthetic in photography throughout the first half of the twentieth century was pictorialism.
Pictorial photographers strove to convey a feeling, thought or sentiment through images that were well considered in choice of subject matter, composition, tonal balance and technique. Most camera club photographers endeavoured to demonstrate this kind of proficiency in their work. However, some photographers believed that photography could convey even higher, more spiritual and metaphysical ideals. For them, the photograph was a “graphic representation … designed to awaken aesthetic pleasure or emotion in the mind of the beholder.”
Sidney Carter
Maude Carter 1906
Carter was a prominent pictorialist photographer as well as an art and antique dealer. Elected an associate of Alfred Stieglitz’s Photo-Secession group in 1904, he later founded the Studio Club in Toronto, hand-picking Canadian photographers dedicated to photographic artistry and craft.
Library and Archives Canada (no. a138572)
THE INSTALLATION BELOW WAS ON VIEW FROM AUGUST 2022 TO AUGUST 2023
NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA, A104A
Arthur Beales
Mrs. Arthur Beales Near Toronto Junction c. 1890–1910
Beales practised amateur photography as a young man and then professionally when he became the first official photographer for the Blueprint and Photographic Department of the Toronto Harbour Commission in 1914. He also painted in watercolour and oils, taking lessons from T. Mower Martin.
Library and Archives Canada (no. a800205)
Margaret Watkins
Still-life with Mirror and Flowers c. 1926
Watkins was one of Canada’s most important pictorialist/modernist photographers. She was most prolific in the late 1910s and 1920s, with her works included in at least twenty-two exhibitions between 1919 and 1925. Described as “Modernist” or “Cubist” in their composition, her photographs emphasized geometric shapes and repeated patterns, with every element contributing to the overall design.
Purchased 1984 with the assistance of a grant from the Government of Canada under the terms of the Cultural. Property Export and Import Act (no. 20625)
© Joseph Mulholland, Glasgow, Scotland
William Gordon Shields
Untitled (Emma L. Shields) 1916
Shields displayed regularly at venues such as the Toronto Camera Club salon, the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association Camera Club salon, the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition and the 1917, 1918 and 1919 Pittsburgh Salon of National Photographic Art. His photographs followed the soft-focus ideal that emphasized large tonal areas with the ultimate goal of creating a painterly effect.
Purchased 2011 (no. 43353)
THE INSTALLATION BELOW WAS ON VIEW FROM SEPTEMBER 2021 TO AUGUST 2022
NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA, A104A
Minna Keene
Pomegranates c. 1910
Keene was a respected member of both the Royal Photographic Society and the Linked Ring society, which promoted photography as an art. This portrait was named Picture of the Year at the London Salon, 1911. The German-born artist would later move to Canada, via South Africa, in 1913 and establish studios in Montreal and Toronto. The Canadian Pacific Railway commissioned her to photograph the Rockies in 1914–15. By 1921 Keene was based in Oakville, ON, where she continued to submit work to photographic salons worldwide.
National Gallery of Canada
Purchased 2020 (no. 48989)
Arthur Goss
Child and Nurse (also known as Portrait of a Child) 1906
Arthur Goss is known mainly for the documentary work he produced for the City of Toronto as its official photographer from 1911 to 1940. However, in 1904, he joined the Toronto Camera Club and entered work into their photographic salons. This photograph of his daughter Enid reveals Goss’ embrace of pictorialism that valued evocative images expressive of deeper truths through simple composition and high tonal values.
Library and Archives Canada (no. e011074188)