signed and dated lower left; titled on the stretcher verso
Provenance: Collection of James E. Lanigan (Calgary AB), noted art collector and historian specializing in early Saskatchewan art.
Note: A frame-mounted presentation plaque reads “Presented by Dr. H.L. Jackes 1944″, denoting the gift of this work to the Assiniboia Club, Regina SK. The remnants of an exhibition label remain on the backing board.
Inglis Sheldon-Williams was born in Hampshire, England, in 1870. At the age of 17, in 1887, he emigrated to Canada with his mother. For four years, the artist homesteaded at Cannington Manor, an English colony in southeast Saskatchewan, which was established with an agricultural college where young Englishmen were taught to farm in the prairies. Sheldon-Williams returned to his native England around 1890, where he attended the Slade School of Art, and then spent time traveling across India, Europe, and South Africa, providing illustrations for magazines and English periodicals.
In 1913, Sheldon-Williams returned to Canada with his wife, settling in Regina until 1918. Though he stayed for only a short period, Sheldon-Williams had a significant impact on the early art community: in 1916, he founded the School of Art at Regina College, was commissioned regularly for his landscapes, and painted portraits of multiple high-ranking officials. During this time, he met and became friends with lawyer and art collector Norman Mackenzie, the namesake of the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina. Despite these successes, Sheldon-Williams became restless in the prairie community, and in 1918, he returned to Europe as an official war artist. Although he never returned to live in Canada, he sent his work overseas to be sold in the Canadian market. Sheldon-Williams died in England in 1940.
Showery Weather, dated 1923 in the lower left, was created during a period when Sheldon-Williams was living abroad, although he was attempting to return to the prairies and sending selections of his paintings overseas. In 1924, the L.C.W. Art Committee of Regina held a solo exhibition for Sheldon-Williams’ work, and he continued to participate in group shows in the city. Showery Weather was purchased by Dr. Harvey L. Jackes, a physician in Regina and avid community member. Jackes became president of the Assiniboia Club of Regina in 1940, a private club founded in 1882 that hosted many powerful politicians and professionals. The painting remained in the club’s collection until its closure in 2007, when it was deaccessioned and purchased by its most recent owner.
