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The Cremation of Sam McGee

Ted Harrison, 1985

Categories

  • Painting

Artist

Ted Harrison

Medium

Acrylic on canvas

Classification

Painting

Dimensions

33 x 35.4 cm

More Information

Ted Harrison’s distinctive and bright-coloured paintings capture the essence of the Canadian North and its people. His understanding of the world underwent a transformation after arriving in Carcross, Yukon in the fall of 1968, inspiring his unique visual language. The vast and expansive beauty of the Yukon landscape challenged the artist to push traditional boundaries, and what emerged on his canvases was an explosion of colour and undulating lines. The 27 paintings illustrate the stories of The Cremation of Sam McGee and The Shooting of Dan McGrew, written by poet and writer, Robert W. Service. As a significant part of Yukon heritage, these stories combine the legends of the Gold Rush, the splendor of the landscape and the artistic inspiration that only the land of the midnight sun can breed. The thirteen paintings that depict The Cremation of Sam McGee were first published in1986, and the fourteen paintings for The Shooting of Dan McGrew were first published in 1988.