Canada's Art and Artists on Canadian Stamps
by John Burnett (ENY1)
Originally published in Linns Stamp News (slightly edited here for younger readers)
I am sure some of you have gone to stamp shows with a parent or guardian and looked at all the neat stuff on display and wondered "what could I do create something as nice as those collections?" Let me try to help you along a little. Canada has long produced stamps commemorating her artists and their works, what a great collection that could be!
Let's go back and look at some of the earlier Canadian stamps that show some of Canada's art on them. I am not going to write about Canada's Centennial Issue of 1967 - 1973 because the artists are not named on them but hey would also make an excellent addition to your Canadian Art collection.
Figure 1 shows Canada's first commemorative stamp for an artist and his art, the 50¢ stamp issued for the 1969 centennial of the birth of Quebec painter and sculptor Marc Aurele de Foy Suzor-Cote (Scott and Canada Specialized 492). Issued March 14, 1969, the printing of what was then a relatively high-value stamp was limited to only 6 million copies. This stamp will become harder to find as time passes.
Figure 1 - This 1969 50¢ stamp marks the centennial of the birth of Quebec artist and sculptor Marc Aurele de Foy Suzor-Cote and depicts his painting Return from the Harvest Field.
There are two small constant plate varieties, marks on all the stamps printed in a particular place on the stamp sheet. The first is called the "bird in the sky" that appears in position 5 and the other is the "line from the knee" variety.
Next came stamps in more practical denominations that paid first-class postage. The first of these was a stamp issued on September 18, 1970, to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of Canada's "Group of Seven" artists with a 6¢ stamp depicting Arthur Lismer's Isle of Spruce (518). Figure 2 shows a first day cover of the stamp, with a cachet naming the Group of Seven's founding members.
Figure 2 - This cacheted first day cover for the 1970 stamp for the 50th anniversary of the Group of Seven, names the founders of this influential circle of artists. The 6¢ stamp shows Isle of Spruce by member Arthur Lismer.
The Group of Seven was a group of recognized Canadian artists in the first decades of the twentieth century, banded together by their love of Canadian landscape art, and bold in its presentation on canvas.
On February 12, 1971, Emily Carr was honored on the 100th anniversary of her birth with a stamp displaying her painting, Big Raven, (532). The 6¢ is shown nearby in Figure 3.
Figure 3 - Big Raven, based on a native carving, is the painting depicted on this 1971 stamp for the west coast painter Emily Carr.
Emily Carr was born in 1871 in Victoria British Columbia, where she spent most of her life. She was regularly rejected as an artist and her paintings were not really appreciated until her death in 1945. Early in her career she spent much of her time in the rain forests of Canada's Pacific coast, capturing on canvas the culture of Canada's native people, and the countries majestic scenery. Carr is probably best known for her paintings that include totem poles.
Aspects of native life also absorbed 19th century painter Paul Kane as in the artwork on the 7¢ commemorative stamp Indian encampment on Lake Huron issued to honor him on August 11, 1971, shown in Figure 4 (553).
Figure 4 - Much of Paul Kane's art showed native life, as in Indian Encampment on Lake Huron on this 1971 stamp.
An artistic contemporary of Paul Kane was Cornelius Krieghoff who was memorialized on the 100th anniversary of his death with a 1972 stamp printed by the British American Bank Note Company, in Ottawa with a run of 28 million stamps. The 8¢ commemorative stamp (610), depicting Krieghoff's wintery painting, The Blacksmith's Shop is shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5 - The Blacksmiths Shop by Cornelius Kreighoff appears on this 8¢ commemorative stamp of 1972.
Another artistic centennial was observed on June 8, 1973, when Canada returned to the Group of Seven with a stamp for the 100th birthday of J.E.H. MacDonald (617). This 15¢ stamp was printed in a quantity of 12 million by Ashton-Potter, in four color lithography. Portraying MacDonald's striking painting Mist Fantasy, the stamp is shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6 - This 15¢ stamp marks the 100th birthday of J.E.H. MacDonald and shows his striking painting Mist Fantasy.
On June 26, 1977, a se-tenant pair of 12¢ commemorative stamps paying the standard first class postage rate was issued for the centennial of the birth of artist Tom Thomson (733-34). The son of well-to-do and well educated parents, Thomson was introduced to the arts at an early age. He became a serious artist in his early thirties.
Around 1911 Thomson visited northern Ontario's Algonquin Park and, until his death in 1917, he spent much of his time alone painting landscapes there. He spent so much time in the park that when funds ran low he was able to act as a guide for visitors. He died very young at age 40 and this early death stopped him from becoming a member of the Group of Seven but he is generally acknowledged as the spiritual Godfather of the group.
Figure 7 shows the se-tenant pair of his paintings April in Algonquin Park and Autumn Birches.
Figure 7 - A se-tenant pair of 12¢ stamps reproduces April in Algonquin Park and Autumn Birches by Tom Thomson, one of Canada's best known artists.
I hope you can see from this article that you can make up a pretty good collection of something like Canada's Artists on stamps. There are many more stamps that depict the work of Canadian artists and we will explore them in another article in the future.
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