A Prairie Town

1925

Oil on canvas

76.2 cm. x 101 cm.

Location: Gleichen, Alberta
Signed and dated l.l.: C.W. JEFFERYS '25

Based on sketches made of Gleichen, Alberta, in July 1924. Called 'A Prairie Town (Five Grain Elevators)' in Jefferys' record of works on hand.

Provenance

Estate of the artist

Orval and Barbara Jefferys Allen, Deville, Alberta

Anthony and Nancy Allen, Edmonton, Alberta

Publication References

• Gunn, John (1924). Canada, Nelson's Geography Practice
• Stacey, Robert (1976). Charles William Jefferys 1869 - 1951
• Stacey, Robert (1986). Western Sunlight: C. W. Jefferys on the Canadian Prairies

• Francis, R. Douglas.  Images of the West: Images of the Canadian Prairies. 

• Longo, Peter J. (2018) Great Plains Politics, University of Nebraska Press

Exhibitions

• 1925, 53rd Ontario Society of Artists (Catalogue) Catalogue image Catalogue reference
  
• 1925, Canadian National Exhibition
• 1925, 47th Royal Canadian Academy
• 1935, National Gallery of Canada, Selected Artists
• 1939, New York World's Fair, RCA, Canadian Art
• 1976, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario
• 1977, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario
• 1977, Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario
• 1977, Glenbow-Alberta Institute, Calgary, Alberta
• 1977, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
  
• 1984, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Western Sunlight: C. W. Jefferys on the Canadian Prairies
• 1985, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan
• 1985, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Alberta
• 1985, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta
• 1985, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
• 1985, Rodman Hall Arts Centre, St. Catharines, Ontario
• 1985, Mount Saint Vincent Universary Art Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Publication References:

“Art and artists.”  In The Globe, Mar. 18, 1925, p. 15.

“C.W. Jefferys shows some of the fruit of his recent Western visit. ‘Prairie Town’ is an interesting treatment of an uninteresting subject, its yellow fields, gleaming grain elevators and clustering stores and houses giving a true impression of the spacious West.”

“If Word Lovely Were Banned Some Would Be Tongue-Tied….”  Toronto Daily Star. September 17, 1925.
“There [at Exhibition art show] was the grand manner or traveled school. It was well represented by a stately lady with a tortoise shell lorgnettr. She at once brought her long handled monocle into play in the Canadian section and pointing to a painting by Charles Jeffreys [sic] of grain elevators in a prairie town said to the young lady with her, ‘There, my dear, is a splendid example of chiarascuro.’ ‘What’s that, aunt,’ said the young lady. ‘It’s the secret of all great art.’ ‘Come on, auntie,’ retored the irreverent young miss. ‘Loosen up. Don’t keep me guessing. What do you mean?’ Then the lady who had seen the Sistine chapel in St. Peter’s explained that it meant the handling of light and shade. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘how beautifully the shadows of those cathedrals fall on the grass.’ the cathedrals were grain elevators. She turned the lorgnette on an afternoon sun on the north shore of Lake Superior. ‘Now there is something that reminds me of Rubens or it maybe Rodin.’ Her niece looked up the catalogue and laughed. ‘Why, it’s Lauren Harris.’”