One nice thing about working with Open Collections is that we can learn from our patrons. In a previous tweet, we shared a serigraph print in original frame with a plaque reading Lake Superior, Ontario, Canadian Pacific from the Chung Collection. A patron pointed out that it looks like a painting by the Group of Seven.
Lake Superior, Ontario Canadian Pacific, [1950?]
The Canadian Pacific Railway commissioned a series of serigraphs for display which were produced in small runs. The print above was one of them. These images, designed by Canadian artists and photographers, such as Alfred Crocker Leighton, Peter Ewart, and Alfred Joseph Casson, were distributed to Canadian Pacific Railway agents’ offices to showcase the emerging Canadian national aesthetic and promote the opportunities for tourism and travel within the country.
The Chung Collection includes more than 200 posters, as well as other C.P.R. artwork and supplemental material. In this post, we select a few prints of landscape paintings from this collection. You can click on each image to jump to the page in Open Collections, where you can enlarge the image and read the full descriptions.
Banff Springs Hotel and Bow River Valley, [between 1920 and 1929?]
Cathedral Mountain, [between 1930 and 1939?]
West Coast, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canadian Pacific, [not before 1940]
Mount Eisenhower, [not before 1940]
Moraine Lake, Canadian Rockies, [not before 1940]
Winter in the Laurentians, [1950]
Foothills of Alberta, Canadian Pacific, [1950?]
Lynn Canal, Alaska, [1950?]
The Three Sisters Canadian Rockies, [1955?]
How would I find out the value of a painting I want to purchase. It is called Valley of the Ten Peaks by AC Leighton. It is signed and framed and has Courtesy of Canadian Pacific Archives plaque. Same as ones shown above.
Hi Ken,
Thank you for your comment and interest in our collections. Unfortunately we do not field specific research or reference questions. If you are interested in paintings in the Chung Collections, please visit the following link to conduct keyword searches:
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/chung
Thank you again for taking the time to contact us.
Best regards,
Digitization Centre Team
Very interesting story. How many runs of these serigraphs did the CPR do? I have seen them in antique store.
Hi Norma,
Thank you for your comment and interest in our collections.
Based on a quick search of our digitized collections, while it is uncertain about the runs of these serigraphs, we know that the Canadian Pacific Railway commissioned a series of serigraphs for display which were produced in small runs.
If you are interested in paintings in the Chung Collections, please visit the following link to conduct keyword searches:
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/chung
Thank you again for taking the time to contact us.
Best regards,
Digitization Centre Team
Hello,
We have moved into a home that had the Serigraph titled Lake Superior, Ontario Canadian Pacific, [1950?] in the Chung Collection (artist A. J. Casson). How can I determine the value of this item?
That is very interesting! We don’t track values for items but you can determine the fair market value by finding similar items on auction websites. eBay is a good place to start but comparing values on other sites is helpful. Good luck and enjoy your vintage print!
I just bought 3 of these but noticed someone had cut them to fit frames. Such a shame 🙁
Do you have any information on the earlier CPR artists and paintings? John A. Fraser, JOhn Hammond, William Brymner, were some of the artists. Some of them were painting the western scenery for the CPR in the 1880s, I believe.