Henry James Warre's and Paul Kane's Sketches in the Athabasca ...

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figure 2.12Paul Kane, MountainScenery, watercolour overgraphite on paper, 14 x 22.9cm, November, 1846; alsoknown as Rocky MountainLandscape.[Courtesy Royal Ontario Museum,946.15.237.]figure 2.13I.S. MacLaren. The Lowerand Upper Palisade fromnear Maligne Range HorsePaddock, November 1997.I . S . M a c L a r e n 53
the order in which he made the sketches. It appears that he made thefirst after he had crossed the Athabasca River above Jasper House androde along what is known today as the Overlander Trail on the east sideof the river (Fig. 2.12). Titled merely Mountain Scenery in the cataloguefor the exhibition of sketches in 1848 and, oddly, “a prarey withmounten sheepe” in his landscape log, the sketch bearing the handwrittennumber 34 in the upper left depicts an open foreground on theeast side of the river. The background includes the feature on the westside known today as the Palisade. This sits below Pyramid Mountain,which dominates the left background. According to his field note for 5November, Kane made a sketch where he camped the first night outfrom Jasper House; Mountain Scenery likely shows the prairie thathosted him that night.The sketch can be contrasted with the view in a photograph takennear the Maligne Range horse paddock (Fig. 2.13). Moved out of town tothat site by Jasper National Park wardens in 1971, the barn (built in 1966and rebuilt in 1984 after a fire), blacksmith shop, and range are locatedacross (east of) the Sixth Bridge over the lower Maligne River. 23 Kane’sdepiction of the Palisade evinces greater exaggeration than is found inthe previous renditions in his Athabasca sequence. Both Pyramid Mountain(left) and the Lower Palisade (centre) appear relatively to scale, butthe Upper Palisade (right) is rendered as a peak rather than as a cliff.Why its height is so exaggerated is a question. Perhaps the wind was stillhowling. Or did Kane, confusing the form of the Upper Palisade withthat of a low cloud, build it far too high? Does its height merely indulgean artistic impulse?The extensive use of green in the sketch suggests a point in the valleyless burned or less recently burned than were stretches downstreamfrom it. Still, a much denser forest covers the Palisade today, and theforeground forest on the northeast bank of the Athabasca precludes aview of the Athabasca River like the one that Kane shows by a grey washfrom his prospect point 160 years ago. Meanwhile, the entry in the landscapelog is puzzling, for, while there appears to be a prairie in theforeground (just right for a horse paddock more than a century later), nomountain sheep appear anywhere in the sketch. Also notable by itsabsence is gouache, which watercolourists tended to use for portionsthat they wished to whiten, as in snowy landscapes. A product of the oldschool, which stipulated that a master of watercolour demonstrate virtu-54 Henry James Warre’s and Paul Kane’s Sketches in the Athabasca Watershed, 1846
Page 1 and 2: 1 The University of Alberta PressEd
Page 3 and 4: Published byThe University of Alber
Page 5 and 6: 7 Laying the Tracks for Tourism 233
Page 7 and 8: figure 2.1Henry James Warre, RockyM
Page 9: figure 2.3Henry James Warre,Jasper
Page 13 and 14: figure 2.7Paul Kane, Jasper’s Lak
Page 15 and 16: figure 2.9Paul Kane, AthabascaRiver
Page 17: Solomon Creek (downriver) and Fiddl
Page 21 and 22: figure 2.15I.S. MacLaren. Athabasca
Page 23 and 24: of Kane’s sketch. The advantage o
Page 25 and 26: figure 2.20Paul Kane, Snow Scene in
Page 27 and 28: figure 2.22I.S. MacLaren. Committee
Page 29 and 30: Appendix 1Kane’s Field Notes, 30
Page 31 and 32: Author’s NoteI thank Bob Hallam a
Page 33 and 34: subject to Jasper House. (The entry
Page 35 and 36: 28. George Simpson, Fur Trade and E
Page 37 and 38: Royal Ontario Museum: 92 ETH, 42-50
Page 39 and 40: Canadian Congress on Leisure Resear
Page 41 and 42: ———. Report of the Panel on t
Page 43 and 44: 2: 82-140. London: Samuel Curtis, 1
Page 45 and 46: Hart, E.J. Diamond Hitch: The Early
Page 47 and 48: ———. A History of Canada’s
Page 49 and 50: Nelson, J.G., and R.C. Scace, eds.
Page 51 and 52: Speares, Betty. “Mary, Mary, Quit

Henry James Warre's and Paul Kane's Sketches in the Athabasca ...

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