Canadian Art Culture

While Canadians are consistently stereotyped as polite, peaceful and accepting individuals, Canadian history demonstrates its evident use of war and rebellion. Canadians fought against First Nations’ tribes, the French, the Americans and against Axis powers in the First and Second World War to achieve various levels of independence and peace for Canada and its ideals. Wars create distinct symbols, customs and of course art work, resulting in a uniquely Canadian culture. During the Second World War, Canadian art culture flourished with the creation of an official art program designed to document the Canadian war effort overseas, inspiring a new generation of artists and art movements. However, secondary research provides little information on

P. Stacey, the Army’s Historical Officer at the Canadian Military Headquarters: “I haven’t interfered with their technical methods but have tried to direct [the artists] so their product will be of the highest historical value in the future.” Historical value was of the utmost importance to the Second World War Official War Art Program, which required a certain level of accuracy. The Canadian Armed Forces’ officers like Duguid hoped that soldier training would result in war artists who could render military subject matter in art with a certain level of accuracy and separate the historically value from the unimportant. An example of such an artist with military technology as a subject matter was Toronto-born artist, Lawren P. Harris, one of the first men to enlist in the art program for the Second World War. Harris was originally commissioned to the 3rd Canadian Armored Reconnaissance Regiment before being transferred to the 5th Armored Division Regiment in 1944, stationed in Italy at the time. One of the most noted works of this regiment is Harris’s painting, Tank Advance (see Figure 1), which paints four camouflaged Canadian tanks racing across the dusty Italian landscape in 1944. The center-most tank in this painting is rendered in absolute detail, resulting in lifelike machines and an accurate reflection of the tanks used by Canadians in Italy, such as the M4 Sherman. The other three tanks in the painting are rendered in less detail

Ottawa-born artist, Tom Wood, was largely self-taught before becoming a war artist for the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1943. Most of his naval art was painted either while stationed in Newfoundland at various Canadian and English training camps or while crossing the North Atlantic Ocean onboard Canadian conveys. One of his naval paintings that best exemplifies naval technology is the painting, The Boarding of the U-744 (see Figure 2). Here, the viewer sees the HMCS Chiliwack’s boarding party on route to a U-744, a type of German submarine. The painted submarine is almost a replica of the real submarine (see Figure 3). A photograph was taken at the same moment that Wood chose to paint and despite supposedly not using the photograph as an aid, the two images are almost identical. This notion testifies to Wood’s skill as a painter and his eye for accuracy. At the same time, Wood’s Boarding of the U-744 also conveys the Canadian naval experience on the North Atlantic Ocean. Waters were choppy and difficult to navigate let alone when capturing and boarding a German submarine. Life was difficult in the navy, the enemy was fearsome and all soldiers were pushed to their limits. Tom Wood conveys this atmosphere in his painting, The Boarding of the U-744. Within both painting examples, there are hardly moments in the Second World War where an army, navy or