JOHN ARTHUR FRASER (1838–1898)
Mount Sir Sandford (3,519 m -11,545 ft)
Canada (British Columbia)
In At the Rogers Pass, Selkirk mountains, 1885, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
The mountain
Mount Sir Sandford (3,519 m -11,545 ft) is the highest mountain of the Sir Sandford Range and the highest mountain in the Selkirk Mountains of southeastern British Columbia, Canada. It is the 12th highest peak in the province. The mountain was named after Sir Sandford Fleming, a railway engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The Selkirk Mountains are a mountain range spanning the northern portion of the Idaho Panhandle, eastern Washington, and southeastern British Columbia which are part of a larger grouping of mountains, the Columbia Mountains. They begin at Mica Peak near Spokane and extend approximately 320 km north (200 miles) from the border to Kinbasket Lake, at the now-inundated location of the onetime fur company post Boat Encampment. The range is bounded on its west, northeast and at its northern extremity by the Columbia River, or the reservoir lakes now filling most of that river's course. The Selkirks were named after Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk.
The painter
John Arthur Fraser was a British artist, photography entrepreneur and teacher. He undertook various paintings for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He is known for his highly realistic landscapes of Canada and the United States, many of them watercolors. Fraser's early work as a tinter of small head and shoulders studies for Notman is skillful and sensitive, giving the impression of miniature paintings. One his first known landscapes was the picturesque and romantic Crossing the ice at Pointe de Lévy in Quebec City (1866), which showed that he was already an accomplished artist. It has a dramatic sky and lighting, and meticulous detail in the foreground. Two of his oils from 1873, September afternoon, Eastern Townships and A shot in the dawn, Lake Scugog resemble the work of the Pre-Raphaelite painters popular in Britain at the time. They have strong and original composition and colour, with photographic clarity and detail. His 1878 New Brunswick landscapes are larger and more original both in composition and in use of colour than his earlier landscape. Most of Fraser's paintings were watercolours. His work was praised for its photographic realism, attention to detail and mastery of colour and light.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
