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Cornelius David Krieghoff 1815 - 1872 Canadian oil on canvas laid down on board Canoe on the River A07F-E05234-001 14 x 14 inches 35.6 x 35.6 oval centimeters signed and dated 1865 Literature:Dennis Reid, Krieghoff: Images of Canada, 1999, page 163 Provenance:N.M. Davis Corporation Ltd., Toronto Canoe on the River depicts a lone Indian traversing the river rapids in a traditional birch bark canoe. This painting is an important illustrative account of Canadian cultural history. Krieghoff's iconographic images shaped the concept of Canada for foreigners abroad whose knowledge of natives was limited to artists' representations of colonized lands. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Indian existed at the margins of an increasingly industrial and urban society: however, many still lived a natural life out in the wilderness. Krieghoff has succeeded, as Reid states, in "portraying the human condition, not to elevate his viewers above it. Indeed, his pictures often seem designed to make the viewer part of the incident depicted, to bring the viewer inside the picture." The native portrayed in Canoe on the River is a small figure in the powerful landscape, vulnerable yet heroic. E30000-40000