From the Author
Thanks to my colleagues at the Royal Ontario Museum: Kenneth Lister (Anthropology), Heidi Sobol and Janet Cowan (Conservation), and Mary Allodi (Canadiana), all of whom were sounding boards about Kane. Ken’s research on Kane can only be described as inspiring. Priyanka Vaid at the Glenbow Museum, Jacques Des Rochers at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Debra Antoncic at the RiverBrink Museum, and Charlie Hill at the National Gallery of Canada kindly responded to specific inquiries. Special thanks to David Passmore, always insightful. I could not have asked for a better editorial team than that of the ACI.
From the Art Canada Institute
This online art book was made possible thanks to BMO Financial Group, the Lead Sponsor of the 2014–15 Season of the Canadian Online Art Book Project. Much gratitude goes to The McLean Foundation, the title sponsor for Paul Kane: Life & Work, as well as the other sponsors for the 2014–15 Season: Aimia; Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc.; The Hal Jackman Foundation; Phyllis Lambert; TD Bank Group; the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts; and the Harold Town Estate.
Thanks also to the Art Canada Institute Founding Patrons: Sara and Michael Angel, Jalynn H. Bennett, The Butterfield Family Foundation, David and Vivian Campbell, Albert E. Cummings, Kiki and Ian Delaney, The Fleck Family, Roger and Kevin Garland, Michelle Koerner and Kevin Doyle, Phil Lind, Sarah and Tom Milroy, Charles Pachter, Gerald Sheff and Shanitha Kachan, Sandra L. Simpson, and Robin and David Young; as well as its Founding Partner Patrons: The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and Partners in Art.
The ACI gratefully acknowledges the support and assistance of the Art Gallery of Ontario (Jim Shedden and Ebony Jansen), the Cobourg Public Library (Heather Viscount), Library and Archives Canada, Andrew Liptak, the National Gallery of Canada (Kristin Rothschild and Leah Resnick), RiverBrink Art Museum (Debra Antoncic), Royal Ontario Museum (Nicola Woods), and the Stark Museum of Art (Alicia Benitez-Booker).
Image Sources
Photo Credits Every effort has been made to secure permissions for all copyrighted material. The Art Canada Institute will gladly correct any errors or omissions.
Credit for Cover Image
Paul Kane, Cunnawa-bum, Metis (Plains Cree and British ancestry), c. 1849–56. (See below for details.)
Credits for Banner Images
Biography: Paul Kane c. 1850, photographer unknown. M.O. Hammond Collection, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Key Works: Paul Kane,The Buffalo Pound, c. 1846–49. (See below for details.)
Significance & Critical Issues: Paul Kane, Medicine Pipe Stem Dance, Blackfoot, c. 1849–52. (See below for details.)
Style & Technique: Paul Kane, Half Breeds Travelling, Plains Metis, c. 1849–56. (See below for details.)
Sources & Resources: Canada Envelope Company commemorative Paul Kane mailer, 1971. Photo courtesy of Andrew Liptak.
Where to See: View of Paul Kane paintings in the Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. (See below for details.)
Buffalo Hunt Studies, 1846. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (946.15.103.1).
The Buffalo Pound, c. 1846–49. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (103720).
The Cackabakah Falls, c. 1849–56. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.17).
Compositional Studies of Four Figures with Fans, c. 1846–48. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (946.15.79.2).
The Constant Sky, Saulteaux, c. 1849–56. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.30).
Culchillum Wearing a Medicine Cap, 1847. Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas (31.78.108).
Cunnawa-bum, Metis (Plains Cree and British ancestry), c. 1849–56. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.41).
The Death of Omoxesisixany or Big Snake, 1860. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (2010.17.1).
Detail of Scroll and Caryatids, c. 1841. In Paul Kane and E.S. Rogers, Paul Kane Sketch Pad (Toronto: Charles J. Musson, 1969).
Encampment amongst the Islands of Lake Huron, 1859 (woodcut illustration from Paul Kane, Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America). Photo courtesy of Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
Encampment with Conical Shaped Lodges and Canoe, 1845. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (946.15.37).
Falls of Pelouse, 1847. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (946.15.187).
Flat Head Woman and Child, Caw-wacham, Cowlitz, c. 1849–52. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.80).
Fort Edmonton, Hudson’s Bay Company; Plains Cree, Assiniboine, c. 1849–56. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.27).
François Lucie, A Cree Half-Breed Guide, c. 1847–48. Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas (31.78.147).
Half Breeds Travelling, Plains Metis, c. 1849–56. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.24).
Head Chief of the Assiniboines, (Portrait of Mah-min), Assiniboine, c. 1849–56. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.59).
Indian Encampment on Lake Huron, c. 1845. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (3597).
Kee-akee-ka-saa-ka-wow, “The Man That Gives the War Whoop,” Plains Cree, Fort Pitt, 1846. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, accession no. 1981-55-44, acquired with the assistance of a grant from the Minister of Communications under the terms of the Cultural Property Export and Import Act.
Kee-akee-ka-saa-ka-wow, (“The Man That Gives the War Whoop, Head Chief of the Crees”), Plains Cree, c. 1849–56. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.42).
Lower Falls on the Pelouse River, 1847. Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas (31.78.49).
The Man That Always Rides, Blackfoot, c. 1849–56. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.44).
Maydoc-game-kinungee, “I Hear the Noise of a Deer,” Ojibway Chief, Michipicoten Island, September 1848. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, accession no. 1981-55-51, acquired with the assistance of a grant from the Minister of Communications under the terms of the Cultural Property Export and Import Act.
Medicine Pipe Stem Dance, 1848. Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas (31.78.148).
Medicine Pipe Stem Dance, Blackfoot, c. 1849–52. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.56).
Nesperces Indian, Nez Perce, c. 1849–56. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.72).
Portrait of a Half-Breed Cree Girl, 1859 (frontispiece to Paul Kane, Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America). Photo courtesy of Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
Portrait of Mrs. Conger of Cobourg, c. 1834. Samuel E. Weir Collection, RiverBrink Art Museum, Queenston, Ontario (982.81).
A Prairie on Fire, c. 1849–56. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.39).
Running Buffalo, Assiniboine, c. 1849–56. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.46).
Scalp Dance, Colville, Colville (Interior Salish), c. 1849–56. Royal Ontario Museum, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.66).
Scene in the Northwest—Portrait of John Henry Lefroy, c. 1845–46. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (103828).
Self-Portrait, c. 1843–45. Samuel E. Weir Collection, RiverBrink Art Museum, Queenston, Ontario (982.175).
Six Black Feet Chiefs, Blackfoot, c. 1849–55. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, The Honourable George William Allan Collection, Gift of Sir Edmund Osler (912.1.50).
White Mud Portage, 1859 (chromolithograph from Paul Kane, Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America). Photo courtesy of Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
Credits for Photographs and Works by Other Artists
Buffalo Hunt on the Southwestern Prairies, 1845, by John Mix Stanley. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Gift of the Misses Henry (1985.66.248,932).
A Country Tavern near Cobourg, Canada West, 1849, by Harriet Clench. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, purchase with assistance from Wintario, 1980 (79/317).
Fringe, possibly for a dress, possibly Plains Cree, collected by Kane c. 1845. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, gift of James and Elaine Slater and their four children, Michael, Kenneth, Lisa, and Abigail (987.197.1).
Front cover of Paul Kane, the Artist: Wilderness to Studio by Kenneth Lister (Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 2010).
Front cover of Paul Kane’s Frontier: Including Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America by Paul Kane by J. Russell Harper (Austin: University of Texas Press for Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; and National Gallery of Canada, 1971).
Frontispiece of Paul Kane, Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America, from Canada to Vancouver’s Island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Territory and Back Again (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1859). Photo courtesy of Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
George Catlin, c. 1868, photographer unknown. George Catlin papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (Digital ID: 1601).
George Catlin’s Indian Gallery paintings and Native American dioramas installed at the United States National Museum, Washington, D.C., c. 1901. The Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, D.C. (78-3843).
George William Allan, photographed by William James Topley, Ottawa, February 1881. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Topley Studio / Library and Archives Canada / PA-026670.
Harlech Castle in Merioneth Shire with Snowdon at a Distance, 1776, by Paul Sandby. National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Harriet Clench, c. 1870, photographer unknown. Cobourg and District Images, Cobourg, Ontario.
Heads of Clatsop Indians, c. 1804–6, by William Clark. From Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804–1806, volume 4 (New York: Dodd, Mead, & Company, 1905). Photo courtesy of American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.
Illustration of an artist using a camera lucida. In Dictionnaire encyclopédique et biographique de l’industrie et des arts industriels (Paris: Librairie des dictionnaires, 1882).
Illustration of the camera lucida, from George Dollond’s Description of the Camera Lucida: An Instrument for Drawing in True Perspective, and for Copying, Reducing, or Enlarging Other Drawings … (London, 1830). Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
Map to Illustrate Mr. Kane’s Travels [1845–48] in the Territory of the Hudson’s Bay Company, published in 1859, by Edward Weller and Paul Kane. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.
Newspaper portrait of the late Paul Kane, published in Canadian Illustrated News, October 28, 1871. Cobourg and District Images, Cobourg, Ontario.
An Officer of the Chasseurs Commanding a Charge, 1812, by Théodore Géricault. Musée du Louvre, Paris (4885).
Paul Kane’s studio sketch box, used between 1820 and 1860. Photo courtesy of National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Paul Kane’s tombstone in St. James Cemetery, Toronto. Photo courtesy of the author.
Round rattle, Northwest Coast, British Columbia, collected by Kane in 1847. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, gift of Raymond A. Willis in memory of his mother, “Chelsea,” daughter of Allan Cassels and granddaughter of the Honourable G.W. Allan (946.81.2).
Shoulder bag, Cree or Metis, 1840s. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, purchased by the Royal Ontario Museum with the assistance of a Moveable Cultural Property grant accorded by the Minister of Canadian Heritage under the terms of the Cultural Property Export and Import Act, and through the generous support of the Carolyn Sifton Foundation Inc. (989.61.1).
The Start of the Race of the Riderless Horses, c. 1820, by Horace Vernet, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, bequest of Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, 1887 (87.15.47).
Title page of George Catlin’s Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indian (London: Tilt & Bogue, 1842). The Newberry Library, Chicago.
Title page of Paul Kane, Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America, from Canada to Vancouver’s Island and Oregon through the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Territory and Back Again (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1859). Photo courtesy of Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
View of Paul Kane paintings in the Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. Photo by Brian Boyle.
Wahk-ta-Ge-Li, a Sioux Warrior, 1844, by Karl Bodmer. Private collection.
Art Canada Institute
Massey College, University of Toronto
4 Devonshire Place
Toronto, ON M5S 2E1
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Gehmacher, Arlene, 1957-, author
Paul Kane : life & work / Arlene Gehmacher.
Includes bibliographical references.
Contents: Biography — Key works — Significance & critical issues — Style &
technique — Sources & resources — Where to see.
Electronic monograph.
ISBN 978-1-4871-0034-6 (pdf).—ISBN 978-1-4871-0036-0 (epub)
1. Kane, Paul, 1810-1871. 2. Kane, Paul, 1810-1871—Criticism and
interpretation. 3. Painters—Canada—Biography. I. Art Canada Institute, issuing
body II. Title.
![Art Canada Institute, Paul Kane, Map to Illustrate Mr. Kane’s Travels [1845–48] in the Territory of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1859](/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/art-books_17_map-paul-kane-travels-nbc-contextual.jpg)
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