Art Articles & Reviews

Walter J. Phillips at Winchester Galleries, 1010 Broad Street, 386-2773, until March 31 The Winchester Gallery (1010 Broad Street) has mounted an impressive show of 50 prints by the extremely popular Canadian artist Walter J. Phillips (1884-1963). Arriving in Canada in 1913, Phillips brought with him a gentle English sensibility of late 19th century romantic naturalism infused with Art Nouveau. He interpreted this through the technique of the Japanese woodcut print. The democratic medium of the colour print was the perfect way to translate his handsome and confident watercolours. The resulting multiples were relatively inexpensive and made their way into the world, helping his family survive hard times in what was to some degree a cultural wilderness. He cut his designs in planks of cherry wood, one for each colour. He then applied watercolour thickened with rice paste and delicately printed each proof on fine Japanese paper. Through his years in Winnipeg, later in Banff and finally in Victoria, Phillips achieved respect. But fame came later. In recent years, driven by a thriving auction trade, a growing interest in western Canadian art and the publication of the massive and gorgeous volume The Tranquillity and the Turbulence (by Roger Boulet, 1982), Phillips prints are reaching prices he could never have imagined. Thus it is remarkable that Winchester has been able to present such a large group of excellent work in fine condition. York Boat on Lake Winnipeg, 1930 In fact, the prints have come from the collection of John P. Crabb of Winnipeg, whose knowledge of and enthusiasm for Phillips is unparalleled - even definitive. Phillips created 248 prints and Crabb told me that his personal collection includes more than 2000 prints and paintings by that master. His archives includes Phillips’ birth certificate, his school report cards and 1,000 newspaper columns written for the Winnipeg Tribune. Crabb was helped in his endeavours by Phillips’ widow Gladys and the family. Crabb is not alone in his appreciation of this artist. He told me of a letter he had received after showing his collection to A. J. Casson (of the Group of Seven) who described Phillips as “Canada’s finest printmaker and one of Canada’s very finest watercolourists.” The current show bears out these accolades. York Boats on Lake Winnipeg is arguably Phillips’ masterwork. Amid surging waves and a hovering gull, the graceful planks and sails of a sturdy York Boat carry Hudson’s Bay men and a single Indian past the lone pine on a windswept island. Tawny ochre and sienna and umbers pervade the soft paper, set off by the red caps and sashes of the sailors. Crabb mentioned that he has owned 20 different prints of York Boats on Lake Winnipeg and that, after her husband’s death, Mrs. Phillips sold beautifully framed proofs of that print to friends for $250. A more intimate print, Gloaming, offers a tender moment. A woman drifts in her red canoe among the lily pads and opal light of evening. Printed in 1921 and just 24 by 21 centimetres, it has sold for $18,000. During the 1920’s Phillips made trips to Alert Bay and other locations on this coast creating some memorable images of the totems and the spindly wharfs which were such a part of his experience of this region. His incisive draughtsmanship and the nature of the wood itself gives these fine prints an authenticity which perhaps only Emily Carr and E. J. Hughes have been able to match. The show includes nine wood engravings, many of coastal scenes. These black and white images were created with an exceeding fineness of line. A single etching is included, to show the form of printmaking that Phillips mastered before he turned to the delicately colour woodcut print. Phillips certainly fell in love with the mountain scenery of the Rockies. He translated the snow and shadows into woodcut in a masterful way and responded to the alpine environment with imaginative views such as The Vapours Round the Mountain Curled. A number of British scenes are also include in this show, including Wylye Mill Bridge, a Gloucester Village and The Field Barn. The collector particularly wanted me to mention his admiration for Peter Redpath of the Winchester’s Broad Street location. “Peter is the one,” he told me. “He’s genuinely interested in what he’s doing. I admire his sincerity. That’s why they have the show.” The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has an extensive collection of Phillips’ finest prints and some important paintings too, mostly gifts of the artist, though none are on display. Back in his home town, Crabb has donated 650 of his pieces to Winnipeg’s Pavilion Museum in the Park, where at least 150 of Phillips’ artistic creations are on display at all times. For an extensive on-line archive of Phillips’ work, visit www.sharecom.ca/phillips