Original Art (Charcoal) - Originals & Repros 8

A spectacular charcoal portrait of a nineteenth century Canadian militiaman from John Baker's 36th Peel Regiment.

The portrait dates from around 1885 and shows the standard uniform of the time. The white pith helmet, which the British adopted in 1878, started to be used by the Canadian militia in the 1880s.

Everything he is wearing, helmet, helmet plate, tunic and pants, badges, leather pouches and belt, and rifle and bayonet, were all made in the UK and imported through middle men like the young William Scully of Toronto, ON.

After the Boer War, due to the entrepreneurial spirit of William Scully most of these items would be made in Canada, and often carry the name Scully Montreal.

Charcoal portraits became all the rage in the 1880s.

They were seen as a quantum leap in portraiture for the masses from simple pencil sketches.

They achieved photographic reality before photo portraits in large sizes were available or affordable.

Thousands of these huge charcoal portraits, from the 1880s and 90s appear at auctions. Usually they show an anonymous child, man, or woman, often a couple, staring out from a huge 16 x 20 frame.

Military portraits like this fabulous piece, are rare.

There are no dots; you are looking at the very graphite pencil marks made by the original artist on the paper.

You will not find a duplicate of this portrait anywhere.

A fabulous original charcoal drawing of what is almost certainly Canadian Boer War artillery officer Lt. John McCrae, who would become Word War I's famous warrior/doctor poet and composer of "In Flander's Fields," here shown in his Boer War era militia getup, and wearing a wedge cap similar to Palmer's.

Again, since his artillery battery was likely charging across the veldt, when in action, his cap sports a chin strap.

This portrait, in its original frame and wavy glass, came from a US estate auction, across Lake Ontario, where it appeared listed as "A British Mounted Trooper."

What a lotta Bull! Honestly, now, did Fred Verner ever do a better buffalo picture? We haven't seen it... This one has it all: foreground, middle ground, background - the species, the herd, the habitat - a massive, virile bull in a commanding stance, snorting at the front; others bellowing just behind; and the herd fanning out beyond as buzzards circle overhead. Every part of this frame displays the talent of a commanding artist. Whether buffalo or bison, you will never see a finer bull than Fanny gives us here...

A superb charcoal original by Fanny Colwill Calvert (1848-1936) a much underappreciated Canadian artist.

Two Great Canadian Originals

We honoured her memory by naming our Labrador Retriever after her.

Below our Fanny (a Yellow Lab) the finest, most obedient, most joyfully exuberant, and loveable Lab we have ever owned, beside her deserving namesake. She is the finest example of why Canada's own Labrador Retriever is, far and away, the most popular dog among the 175 breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club.