On Now
On Now
MANSIONS TO MOUNTAINS: IN CONVERSATION WITH CATHARINE ROBB WHYTE
OPENS
SUMMER 2021
MANSIONS TO MOUNTAINS: IN CONVERSATION WITH CATHARINE ROBB WHYTE
OPENS
SUMMER 2021
J.E.H. MACDONALD:
THE O'HARA ERA 1924-1932
JUNE 7 – OCTOBER 20, 2024
The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to view a vast selection of paintings created by James Edward Hervey (J.E.H) MacDonald (1873–1932) during the annual summer trips he made to the Lake O’Hara region between 1924 and 1930. MacDonald was born in Durham, England and moved with his family to Ontario in 1887, where he began training as an artist at the Hamilton Art School. He continued to study and work as a commercial artist in Toronto and encouraged his colleagues to develop their skills as painters. Alongside artists Tom Thompson, A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris, and others, MacDonald was a founding member of the Group of Seven - Canada's first major art movement. The Group's work showcasing the country's raw natural beauty set the standard for landscape painting for years to follow and has inspired generations of artists. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of MacDonald's first trip to Lake O'Hara, the Whyte Museum is the sole venue for this precisely researched and detailed volunteer endeavour undertaken by geologists Stanley Munn and Patricia Cucman. Their motivation was spurred by a combination of their enjoyment of hiking, scientific inquisitiveness and an enduring love for each other.
Together they have hiked the region for the past two decades, discovering MacDonald’s painting sites while pairing his artwork with Munn’s site-specific photography. At some locations Munn and Cucman have found actual paint scrapings, shards of tea cups and Billy can boil pots used by the artist and his companions. In addition, their research correctly identified miss-labeled lakes, place locations, and sketch dates. The artist’s personal diaries, unpublished letters and historical photos, currently held in a private collection, have also been researched and analyzed. To complement their findings, the Whyte Museum forwarded the paint scrapings to the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) for analysis, the findings of which are saved in our museum holdings.
The resulting research by Stanley Munn and Patricia Cuman documenting the legacy of MacDonald’s Lake O’Hara visits is captured in an illustrated hard cover book titled To See What He Saw: J.E.H. MacDonald and the O'Hara Years 1924-1932. This major publication sheds new light on MacDonald’s painterly career, drawing significantly on his enduring affection for this pristine location in western Canada. Articulated are the stories of artists such as Richard Jack, Carl Rungius, Belmore Browne, Peter Whyte and Catharine Robb Whyte whom he befriended and painted alongside. Others were either nearby or arrived around the same time. The book is available in our museum shop.
The paintings in the exhibition are presented by area. Labels are presented as per lending instructions and do not reflect new research by Cucman and Munn. MacDonald misspelled some place names and some titles have been miss attributed. All the paintings are by MacDonald and all the contemporary photographs are by Munn.
We are extremely grateful and thankful to all the individuals for enhancing the exhibition by lending us their private collections. Public institutions from across the country have also loaned works and their support is most appreciated.
We are immensely gratefull to our lead sponsor Master’s Gallery, Calgary for generously supporting this project both financially, and in assisting to secure private loans. Also appreciated is their continual interest in the activities at the Whyte Museum. We appreciate the annual assistance to our programs and exhibitions from The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, our singular governmental financial contributor. To Stanley Munn and Patricia Cucman, thank you for your endurance, persistence, and fondness for Lake O’Hara. Those qualities helped to ensure the projects fruition and ultimate success.
News coverage:
Image: J.E.H. MacDonald, RCA (1873-1932, Canadian), Cathedral Mountain from Opabin Pass. 1929. Oil on board. MaJ.02.04
Explore the Exhibition:
Lake O'Hara,
Yoho National Park
Area 1: Shores of Lake O'Hara
Area One encompasses the perimeter of Lake O’Hara at the shore level. This section includes works created by MacDonald from views on the perimeter of Lake O’Hara with, for example, Cathedral Mountain, Odaray Mountain, Seven Veil Falls, and Opabin Prospect as the primary subjects.
To reach Lake O’Hara in the 1920s, JEH MacDonald would have travelled from Wapta Lake on horseback, where the destination sported limited access points and rudimentary accommodations. In this high alpine wilderness, with its towering peaks, and rugged terrain strong hiking abilities have always been required. It was in this awe inspiring, fragile environment, where weather conditions change at a disruptive pace, that MacDonald flourished. He accomplished forty-six sketches, and six studio works, some of which are featured here.is accomplishments include fourty-six sketches and six studio works.
James Joseph McArthur (9 May 1856 – 14 April 1925) a Canadian was the first to climb several peaks in the Canadian Rockies and while working for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1887 he saw Lake O’Hara from the summit of Mount Stephen. Consequently, Lake McArthur is named in his honour as are two mountains. Learning about the area from McArthur, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert O’Hara (1789 – 1874), an Irishman from Derryhoyle, Craughwell, County Galway visited shortly thereafter and returned repeatedly to explore the lakes, creeks and mountains. American mountaineer Samuel Evans Stokes Allen (1874 – 1945) another early explorer completed a day trip to the area in 1894. He travelled from Paradise Valley near Lake Louise via Wastach, Wenkchemna and Opabin Passes. It was from this trip, and one other, that he provided the Stoney names for many of the local peaks.
I wandered in the neighbourhood
of Lake O’Hara. I sat and
sketched her beauties.
– J. E. H. MacDonald: A Glimpse of the West, 1929.
LAC, MG30, DIII
Area 2: Wiwaxy Slopes to Oesa
Area Two comprises the area from the piedmont of Wiwaxy to as far west as the slopes surrounding Lake Oesa. This section includes the views across Lake O’Hara, along the trail to Oesa basin and Lake Oesa.
MacDonald returned to Oesa many times, even writing to his son Thoreau in 1924, that it was his favourite destination. As a result of his numerous trips to the lake, he completed thirty-four sketches and five studio canvases equating to approximately 17 percent of MacDonald’s artistic achievements at O’Hara.
Recent academic research has provided the following historic information regarding the naming of Oesa:
“The first person known to set foot on Abbot Pass as part of a western-inspired mountaineering party was Youel Carryer, a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) man from the Grand River Territory of the Six Nations in Ontario who was then an employee of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Sources regarding Youel Carryer are scattered, limiting the biographical detail that can be given, but he was well educated and chose in the 1870s to move west rather than remain on Grand River Territory. There is little physical trace of Youel Carryer’s western life, save for the name of Lake Oesa, which was provided by Carryer in 1894 utilizing a word in his first language (Tuscarora) meaning ‘ice’. Carryer died at Bulls Head Prairie, Crowsnest Pass, in 1898.
Information and text quoted from: Alexandra Weller, Historian, History and Commemoration Branch, IAHCD, Parks Canada, “Youel Carryer – A Biographical Sketch,” Unpublished report, March 2024.
“The first person known to set foot on Abbot Pass as part of a western-inspired mountaineering party was Youel Carryer, a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) man from the Grand River Territory of the Six Nations in Ontario who was then an employee of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Sources regarding Youel Carryer are scattered, limiting the biographical detail that can be given, but he was well educated and chose in the 1870s to move west rather than remain on Grand River Territory. There is little physical trace of Youel Carryer’s western life, save for the name of Lake Oesa, which was provided by Carryer in 1894 utilizing a word in his first language (Tuscarora) meaning ‘ice’. Carryer died at Bulls Head Prairie, Crowsnest Pass, in 1898.
Quite strenuous getting up to Oesa for the tenderfoot climber.
– J. E. H. MacDonald, Diary 1925. LAC, MG 30, DIII
Area 3: Opabin Plateau
Area Three includes the early, steep routes above the shores of Lake O’Hara to Opabin Prospect, and the area of Opabin Plateau from the Prospect to Opabin Lake.
As introduced in Area One, Captain S.E.S Allan had a deep affection for the Indigenous peoples of the area and using their language, named many of the peaks in the O’Hara region including Opabin which means Rocky.
From his letters, MacDonald first traveled to Opabin in 1926, a short but arduous trek. His sketches identify various views and routes of travel, many from favorite daytime rest spots. The Shalesplitters, a name assigned to one of these sites was a favourite for artist friends Pete and Catharine Whyte, as well as trail builders Adeline and George Link.
MacDonald painted twenty-five sketches and three studio canvases with half of them completed in 1929.
I have been going up Opabin Passway, taking my lunch every day. The weather has been very unsettled but not too rough for outdoors.
–J. E. H. MacDonald, Letter to Thoreau, 1927Courtesy of the Estate of Thoreau MacDonald.
Area 4: Alpine Meadow
Area Four encompasses the Alpine Meadow in the immediate vicinity of the Elizabeth Parker Hut - as it is known today - and Wiwaxy Cabin, the smaller original cabin. When MacDonald first visited in 1924 there were a total of thirteen small cabins. From the meadow are the distant views of Mount Biddle, Opabin Pass, Hungabee Mountain and Wiwaxy Peaks. Cathedral Mountain and Odaray Mountain are seen from an alternate direction forming a painter’s paradise. MacDonald took full advantage of the various vantage sights by completing twelve oil sketches, four graphite drawings on paper and later two studio compositions.
Will you address mail to Lake
O’Hara Camp, Hector, B.C.
Yours low and high
J
– J. E. H. MacDonald, Letter to Joan, 1924.
Courtesy of the Estate of Thoreau MacDonald.
Area 5: Odaray Bench & McArthur Pass
Area Five begins about 100 metres in elevation above Area Four (the Alpine Meadow) in the drainage area of Schffer Creek. To the southwest it covers the area to the apex of McArthur Pass; to the west it encompasses the flank of Odaray Bench up to about 2,300 metres and as far north as Odaray Prospect. In MacDonald’s day, there was an old Indigenous trail that accessed McArthur Pass and the link to the Ottertail Valley towards Mount Goodsir.
Due to numerous summer closures by Parks Canada to protect the wildlife corridors and sensitive vegetation, many sites within the area are unattainable. Therefore, many of MacDonald’s thirty-two sketch places are now inaccessible. The artist also completed two works in his Toronto studio.
I enjoy the dreariness &
desolation of old Odaray.
“O the bench of Odaray, where
the elements play. Wearing
snow & rain & sunbeam to the
dying of the day.”
– J. E. H. MacDonald, Letter to Joan, 1925.
Courtesy of the Estate of Thoreau MacDonald.
Area 6: McArthur Meadows
Area Six encompasses the area above McArthur Pass and extends to the shores of Lake McArthur itself. This includes the whole of McArthur Meadows from the base of Mount Park to the shoulder of Mount Schäffer. Access was via McArthur Pass or over the shoulder of Mount Schäffer via a high route above Schäffer Lake. This was an annual Indigenous migration and trade route frequented by the Ktunaxa and Seqsecmec by way of the Ottertail Valley through McArthur Pass, down the Cataract Brook and into the Bow Valley and beyond.
MacDonald took advantage of the various scenic wonders, brushing paint to canvas from above Schaffer Lake, from its shoulder and the meadowlands. Lake McArthur, with its surrounding expanse was artistically rendered from above, at a distance and shore side.
Known are eighteen sketches, and four studio paintings. A fifth studio endeavour is recorded as being completed in 1932 but to date has not been located.
To McArthur in snow. I expected to
get a chance to do McA in snow
so started off in about 4 inches of it.
– J. E. H. MacDonald, 1925 Diary
LAC, MG30, DIII.
Area 7: Kicking Horse Valley & Other
Included are those places outside O’Hara proper that are the lower level of Cataract Brook
Kicking Horse Valley, including up and to, and beyond the Continental Divide, the trail to Sherbrooke Lake and the hills around Sherbrooke Lake Trail and above Wapta
Bungalow Camp, Ross Lake. Access to these areas was from Wapta Bungalow Camp, by horse or on foot. It is assumed MacDonald travelled to these locations primarily on foot.
I am writing now on the veranda at
Wapta waiting for lunch […]
Victoria and Cathedral & all of them
letting the clouds glide over them.
– J.E.H. MacDonald, letter to Joan, August 26, 1927
Courtesy of the estate of Thoreau MacDonald.
About Patricia Cucman & Stanley Munn
In July 2000, in the day shelter at Lake O’Hara, we were part of a small group of campers and lodge guests, attending a presentation about the O’Hara work of J.E.H. MacDonald. The evening whetted our interest to know more about MacDonald’s trips to O’Hara and the resultant paintings. We had seen a photograph, taken in 1930, of J.E.H. MacDonald, Peter and Catherine Whyte, and Adeline Link at an O’Hara location known as the “Shalesplitters”. We decided to try to find the “Shalesplitters” location.
It wasn’t until 2006, several O’Hara visits later, that we at last found the “Shalesplitters” site. That same week, we located several exact spots on which MacDonald had been seated while he painted. Understanding how the vegetation had evolved since MacDonald’s time, we knew that more painting sites could be found. We set about to gather images of MacDonald’s O’Hara paintings so that we could carry them with us as we hiked, searching for and photographing his paint sites. With every new visit, we found more painting sites and artifacts and our excitement grew, as we came to understand how MacDonald must have seen O’Hara and the immediate area.
Today, we have documentation for over 200 of MacDonald’s western paintings and drawings; we have photographed details of a great many of them. The project has expanded to include all aspects of MacDonald’s trips to O’Hara. The breadth of his art works, his diaries, his letters to family and associates, and photographs, artifacts and insights, some as yet unpublished, present a cultural milieu that we have been urged to assemble and document.
When we revealed the scope of our project to the Whyte Museum, the concept emerged to feature this work in an exhibit in 2024, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of MacDonald’s first visit to O’Hara.
Explore the full story in To See What He Saw, J.E.H. MacDonald and the O'Hara Years, 1924-1932, available for purchase in The Whyte's Book Shop:
