Paul Kane/the Artist/: Wilderness to Studio

Definitive ROM publication on iconic Canadian artist just in time for the holidays.

The latest Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) publication, Paul Kane/the Artist/: Wilderness to Studio beautifully illuminates a jewel of the ROM’s collections, the works of the Irish-born Canadian artist, Paul Kane (1810-1871). The book, published in the bicentennial of the artist’s birth, is written by Kenneth R. Lister, Assistant Curator of Anthropology in the ROM’s Department of World Cultures. Paul Kane/the Artist/ is the perfect gift for students of Canadian history, art historians, connoisseurs of art, anthropologists, those interested in the cultures of Aboriginal peoples and, of course, the many admirers of Kane’s art.

The ROM’s anthropology section holds the world’s largest collection of Paul Kane’s art — 100 oil paintings and nearly 400 sketches in graphite and watercolour. This landmark study marks the first time that the ROM’s collection has been published in a single work. In addition to providing the works’ historical context, Lister compares the wilderness sketches and studio paintings for ethnographic accuracy and artistic license.

To highlight further the artist’s life and work, Lister includes a rare manuscript from the ROM’s collections, a previously unpublished account by Maude Cassels, daughter of the
Honourable G. W. Allan, Kane’s principal patron. Responding to Cassels’ observation that little was known of the artist’s family, Kane’s great-great grandson, Paul James Kane, has contributed a section on Kane family genealogy, complemented by archival photographs. An exhibition history for each sketch and oil painting in the ROM’s collection is also included.

Paul Kane/the Artist/: Wilderness to Studio is available in the ROM Museum Store on Level 1 of the ROM’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal for $75, plus applicable taxes. For the months of December and January only, the book is specially priced in the ROM Museum Store and ROM Museum e-store at $60 plus applicable taxes, with ROM Members receiving an additional 10% discount. The book is also available at select bookstores as well as at Amazon.com and chapters.indigo.ca. Paul Kane/the Artist/ is published by Royal Ontario Museum Press.

The Author:

Kenneth Lister holds curatorial responsibility for the ROM’s Subarctic, Arctic, and Northwest Coast ethnographic collections of North America and its Paul Kane collection of sketches and oil paintings. Lister’s areas of research include archaeological fieldwork in the Hudson Bay Lowland of northern Ontario, ethnographic research among the Cree of northern Ontario and the Inuit of Baffin Island, as well as field studies relating to sites sketched by Paul Kane. Drawing upon his Arctic research, Lister curated the exhibition In the Time of the Kayak: Hunting in the Eastern Canadian Arctic. Tuugaaq: Ivory Sculptures from the Eastern Canadian Arctic and Canada Collects: Treasures from Across the Nation, as well as four exhibitions highlighting Paul Kane’s work, are among the other ROM exhibitions curated by Lister. He is also Curatorial Coordinator for the ROM’s Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples. Lister has lectured widely on topics of traditional material culture and writes for popular as well as academic publications.

For more information on Paul Kane/the Artist/: Wilderness to Studio, please contact ROM Publications at publications@rom.on.ca or 416.586.5588.