TORONTO, November 8, 2016 — A new publication from ROM Press celebrates the work of iconic Canadian artist Paul Kane (1810-1871). Published more than a century and a half after its original 1859 publication, Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America documents the artist’s years of travel between Toronto and the Pacific coast. The book depicts Kane’s journeys, the people he met, and the stories he heard, and includes 97 images referenced directly in Kane’s narrative, with 91 paintings drawn from the ROM’s collection. Including an introduction by ROM Assistant Curator Kenneth Lister, this publication realizes Kane’s ambition to present a complete, illustrated account of his travels during the late 1840s and the final years of the fur-trade period.
On its original publication, Wanderings of an Artist received immediate international praise and translated into three foreign languages. While pleased with the enthusiastic response to his work, Kane was disappointed that he was able to include a mere 21 woodcut and lithograph images from his prolific output.
“Even though more than 150 years have passed since the original publication, the artist’s cycle of paintings and his narrative deserve to be finally wedded. In this book, for the first time, Paul Kane’s classic narrative of travel literature and observations is supported by the full complement of paintings that Kane originally set out to develop,” said Kenneth R. Lister, who holds curatorial responsibility for the ROM’s collection of Paul Kane sketches and paintings.
This latest publication is the third in a series from the ROM highlighting the Museum’s Paul Kane collection, the largest in the world. The series includes previous titles Paul Kane /the Artist/: Wilderness to Studio (2010) and The First Brush: Paul Kane and Infrared Reflectography (2014). The new book also demonstrates the ROM’s commitment to its incomparable Paul Kane collection and the preservation of his artistic legacy.
Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America is generously funded by
Elizabeth Walter Endowment Fund
Friends of the Canadian Collections
Gretchen and Donald Ross
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