initialed verso; inscribed verso “suggest horizontal brush strokes in sky”
Note: This work was painted after the original painting, purchased in 1945 by the National Gallery of Canada:
David Brown Milne
BOSTON CORNERS; 1917-18
oil on canvas
20 x 26 in. (50.8 x 66 cm)
This painting is A. Y. Jackson’s interpretation of the David Milne canvas, which was purchased in 1945 by the National Gallery of Canada and can still be found in its collection (Accession No. 4603). It was painted by Jackson for the production of the oil silkscreen that would be part of the Sampson-Matthews public art program. Milne, an important Canadian artist in his own right, was born in Canada but had spent many of his formative years in the United States. This snowy scene of the farmland in upstate New York, near Boston Corners, Milne’s home for many years prior to returning to Canada, would be the only non-Canadian subject found within the Sampson-Matthews serigraphs.
A.Y. Jackson says of the Sampson-Matthews collection: “The silk screens made during the war were by far the best publicity Canadian art ever received.”
The Sampson Matthews silkscreen “Boston Corners” is illustrated on pp. 147 and 216 of “Art for War and Peace: How a Great Art Project Helped Canada Discover Itself” (Sigvaldason & Steeman; 2005).
