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LAND OF EARTH AND SKY: LANDSCAPE PAINTING OF WESTERN CANADA.

Rees, Ronald.

Saskatoon, Western Producer Prairie Books, c1984. 148pp, cloth, $29.95, ISBN 0-88833-134-7. CIP

Grades 9 and up
Reviewed by Walter Kalyn

Volume 13 Number 5
1985 September


Rees has compiled a very lucid interpretive history of landscape painting in western Canada (defined as the area between the Rockies and the Canadian Shield). It must be noted that this is not a comprehensive chronological history. It includes only painters whose work in the author's opinion, "Is of historical interest, or whose vision affected ways in which the prairie is seen." Rees's approach is to show the changes that have occurred in the way in which the western Canadian landscape has been perceived and interpreted by painters. His thesis is that the manner in which the prairie was seen "depended on the temperament of the painter on the landscape preferences of the period and, not least, on government policies toward the West."

More than half of the book is devoted to colour reproductions of paintings the author has chosen to illustrate his thesis. The reproductions are of good quality and are attractively displayed. The book is worth purchasing for this section alone. Although the text will probably be of use to students in senior high school and beyond, the reproductions, many of which are difficult to find in other publications, probably have a much wider audience. This attractive volume should be a part of all collections dealing with the history of Canadian art.


Walter Kalyn, Thom C.I., Regina, Sask.
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