Landscape of Snoke Harbour, British-Columbia. Provenance: Private Collection Montreal, Dominion Gallery

The year 1948 is an important milestone in the work of E.J. Hughes. Not only is this the year of his exploration of the Pacific coast, but professionally, the artist is experiencing great accomplishments. Under the recommendations of Alexander Young Jackson and George Pepper, E. J. Hughes was nominated to the Canadian Group of Painters and henceforth participated in their exhibitions. He also presents a scene from Qualicum Beach in 1948. The latter is now kept at the University of Toronto.

On a personal level, the artist moved several times to Victoria and Shawnigan Lake from 1947 to 1948. As Hughes executed his works with rigor and precision, the production suffered from this period of instability and the oil productions were rare.

An evolving technique

For the works The South End of Qualicum Beach (fig. 1) and A Windy Day Sooke at Harbor (fig. 2) Hughes follows the approach of his Group of Seven predecessors. According to research by Anthea Benson, Frederick Varley, one of the founding members of the group is said to have taught this technique to E. J. Hughes during his training at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts.

For his expedition to the coast, Hughes procured a few small wooden panels which enabled him to produce works on the motif. Robert Amos mentions in his book E.J. Hughes paints Vancouver Island that "on these panels he paints landscapes in nature with oil paint, one at Sooke, one at Roberts Bay near Sidney and several others all over the world. throughout his expedition on the island". R. Amos goes on to point out that of the "[…] seven or eight panels painted by Hughes in 1948, most remained with his family". These works were offered by Hughes in the late 1940s and it was not until several years later that some appeared on the market. The works The South End of Qualicum Beach (fig. 1) and Windy Day Sooke at Harbor (fig. 2) are therefore among the rare body of oils produced during the 1948 expedition.

Although the artist switched from painting to plein air drawing some time later, these two oils on wood panel testify to Hughes' desire to accurately depict his vision of Canadian nature.?

Laurence Perron

Canadian art specialist, researcher and editor at the Cosner Gallery.