Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers

In 1885, Canada saw the first serious attempt to give printmaking a real chance in the art world: William James Thomson sponsored and organized what he dubbed the “First Annual Exhibition of the Association of Canadian Etchers in Toronto.” (Despite being an exhibition of “Canadian” etchers, of 90 artists represented, only 10 were Canadian.) This exhibition was considered to be the first showing of original prints in the country. Prior to this point nearing the turn of the century, printmaking—including woodblocks, etchings, lithographs, and engravings—was seen by many to be little more than a tool of mass reproduction; however, the introduction of the photo-mechanical process some years before Thomson’s exhibition had rendered printmaking obsolete for this use, and the medium made a somewhat slow and ambivalent return to the realm of art. But the stain of commercialism was difficult to lose, and in Thomson’s exhibition, this attitude showed. The exhibition was ultimately a flop, poorly attended, and it would have seemed that printmaking had fallen out of favour. Had it not been for Thomson and other like-minded artists who followed his initiative to help organize the Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers (the CPE), Canada’s short-lived but renown organization of printmakers,printmaking in Canada might have remained a forgotten art.

Prior to the turn of the 20^th century, advertising relied on printmaking. Consequently, printmaking wasn’t the medium of the artist but the tool of the craftsman or technician, who, by carving copies of a block etched or engraved with a design, could quickly and easily produce copies of an illustration for an advertisement, or to make up the plates in a book. As such, prints, unlike other art, were not one-of-a-kind; they were affordable, creating a product that was low in cost and—to some—in worth. After block printing was replaced with photo-mechanical reproduction, the 1890s saw a ‘revival’ in the block print as an art form in America and Europe; however, in Canada, block printing would be slow to gain interest and following, as Thomson would find out.

But Thomson’s attempt wasn’t for naught; in 1886, just a year after his exhibition, the Toronto Arts Students’ League formed: one of the earliest Canadian arts collectives with a specific focus on printmaking. The League was soon followed by the short-lived Mahlstick Club (a junior organization), after which came the Graphic Arts Club, later to become known as the Society of Graphic Art. Perhaps emboldened by Thomson’s attempts, the sudden formation of these various organizations—all of which would connect in one way or another to the CPE—showed that Canadian artists were beginning to see printmaking offered them something unique.

As the Society of Graphic Art was building momentum, hosting four annual exhibitions, there was an increasing demand for exhibitions that focused solely on prints as opposed to the broader territory of graphic arts. In 1919, the First Annual Exhibition of the Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers took place, which is regarded as the first official exhibition of the CPE. Represented in this exhibition were some of the earliest members: William W. Alexander, John W. Cotton, Fred S. Haines, Edgar Lee Laur, W.J. Phillips, George A. Reid, Owen Staples, and William James Thomson. Many of these printmakers already had a reputation built for themselves as commercial artists, and the 1919 exhibition was seen by many of them to be an opportunity to emphasize printmaking as an art distinct from advertising. In the foreword to the exhibition’s catalogue, the organizers, writing on the various types of printmaking, note: “all these processes, originally invented through the genuine need of the artist, have been more or less abused and mishandled by commercial uses and in turn neglected by the artist” (qtd. on Oko 7).

It was clear that Canadian printmakers felt the medium was still prejudiced. For better or worse, printmaking was seen as ‘separate’ from other forms of art, but this difference was something the members of the CPE often embraced. In the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s retrospective on the CPE, curator Andrew J. Oko notes that while exhibitions of other mediums such as painting or sculpture focused on representing a current school of thought or trend, exhibitions of printmaking “remained faithful to the norm of good craft, good taste, good art brought forth by any kind of expression. More experimental, more abstract and large format prints do not appear in the archive collection with increasing regularity until the 1960s” (8).

When the CPE was officially incorporated in 1935, the organization outlined its objective as such: the “practice, promotion, encouragement and development of the art of Etching and Engraving” (Oko 7). Following the formation of the CPE and the end of the second world war, when the government put forth more funding towards arts and art galleries, the latter half of the 1940s marked a turning point for the CPE, during which printmaking saw a level of activity and interest not paralleled before; printmaking had reached the attention of the broader art community, and art critics such as William Colgate recognized this change. Writing in his definitive monograph on Canadian art published in 1943, Colgate notes: “already etching in Canada, no less than wood-block printing, is forcing its way into recognition with a beauty and vitality that promises well for its future development” (216).

William Colgate made this observation at the height of printmaking culture in Canada, which would continue throughout the 50s but would begin to stagger in later years; by the 1960s, the CPE was facing organizational difficulties and was struggling to access adequate resources, such as volunteers and suitable exhibition space. In 1976 the CPE and Society of Graphic Art merged to form the Print and Drawing Council of Canada, which would continue to host biennial exhibitions alongside other societies of printmakers that had formed across Canada over the years, including the Canadian Printmakers’ Showcase, the Burnaby Print Show, Graphex, and the Concours d’estampe et de dessin Québécois, all now defunct save the latter.

The history of printmaking in Canada remains an underwritten and underrepresented subject in many key art monographs. “Many of the country’s historical printmakers have seldom been considered in its art history and perhaps the quality of their work indicates that they should be studied in more depth” (Oko 8). As Oko notes, the history of printmaking in Canada saw no shortage of notable artists, including Clarence A. Gagnon, Edwin H. Holgate, David Milne, and Albert Dumouchel, “who are not represented but these exceptions may be better understood in the future in relation to a larger view of historical printmaking in the country” (8). Even at the height of the CPE, broader interest in printmaking lacked in comparison to that of other mediums (in Colgate’s book, the subject occupies a mere 8 pages of the 278-page volume). “Etchings, prints and drawings,” Colgate wrote in 1943, “unless coloured woodblocks of aquatints, received, until very recently at any rate, scant attention from the committees in charge of our art exhibitions” (208).

Considering printmaking’s mixed appreciation, the question remains why so many artists gravitated towards it. For some, as Duncan F. Cameron notes in the foreword to Images of the Land: Canadian Block Prints, the block print in the Japanese tradition was a refreshing way to approach the challenge of landscape. For artists such as Holgate, printmaking was political; Holgate used printmaking to illustrate Canadian social issues and his subject matter most often included the working class.For Holgate, the democracy of the print—far more affordable and accessible than other art forms—compliments the nature of his subject matter. For the same reasons that so many dismissed the medium—its commercial history, scale, mundanity—made printmaking the ideal form for Holgate.

Though its reign was brief, the CPE and the broader history of printmaking in Canada saw the likes of many renown artists and deserves more study and attention. From the likes of Jack Martin to Frederick B. Taylor, McCanse Art is proud to feature the work of many of these artists and share the history of the Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers.

Written by Mina Ivosev.

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Sources:

Ainslie, Patricia; Cameron, Duncan F. Images of the Land: Canadian Block Prints 1919-1945. Calgary: Glenbow Museum, 1985.

Janice Carbert, et al. “Contemporary Canadian Printmaking.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 27 July 2006.

Colgate, William. Canadian Art: its Origin & Development. 1820-1940. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1943.

Oko, Andrew J. The Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers in Retrospect. Hamilton: Art Gallery of Hamilton, 1981.