View of Shawnigan Lake
Artist
E.J. Hughes
(Canadian, 1913 - 2007)
Date1959
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions81.8 x 114.4 cm
Credit LineThe Mendel Art Gallery Collection at Remai Modern. Gift of the Mendel family 1965.
Object number1965.4.10
Classificationspainting
Collections
On View
Not on viewEdward John Hughes’ talent was recognized early on by artists such as Frederick Varley and Lawren Harris. In 1946, after spending six years expanding his artistic skills as an official war artist, he returned to Vancouver Island to pursue a lifelong artistic study of the province and its landscape. View of Shawnigan Lake is typical of the artist’s stylized approach to realism. He drew inspiration from the works of Henri Rousseau and the Mexican muralists, which he encountered on a trip to New York in 1944.
Hughes has a distinguished reputation for work underscored by compelling clarity and vividness, along with a passion for the beauty of Canada’s West Coast. The artist’s distinct style is marked by the use of flattened space, skewed perspective and simplified shapes, as seen in View of Shawnigan Lake. Hughes’ work was championed by the Montreal art dealer, Dr. Max Stern from whom her father purchased a good deal of his collection.
Hughes has a distinguished reputation for work underscored by compelling clarity and vividness, along with a passion for the beauty of Canada’s West Coast. The artist’s distinct style is marked by the use of flattened space, skewed perspective and simplified shapes, as seen in View of Shawnigan Lake. Hughes’ work was championed by the Montreal art dealer, Dr. Max Stern from whom her father purchased a good deal of his collection.
