More about Scene in the Northwest: Portrait of John Henry Lefroy

Abby Li

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Scene in the Northwest, also known as The Surveyer, depicts Sir John Henry Lefroy, the director of the Toronto Magnetic Observatory who wintered at Lake Athabasca in his search for the magnetic north.

The portrait is situated inside a snowy white landscape. Lefroy is dressed in the outfit of a coureur de bois, or a French-Canadian fur trader, wearing snow shoes in front of a dog sled. Kane paints Lefroy, as described in his autobiography, with a “warm capote of thick white duffle, trimmed with red, and a blue hood,” and includes his three canine companions – Papillon, Milord, and Cartouche. Papillon means butterfly in French, while Milord is what you would call a nobleman in both English and French. Cartouche may refer to the nickname of Louis Dominique Garthausen, a renegade highwayman of early 18th century Paris who stole from the rich to give to the poor, Robin Hood style.

Lefroy introduced and recommended Kane to Sir George Simpson, who allowed him access to the territories of western North America. The seminal project of Kane’s career was his travels through the northwest where he documented his experiences with the Aboriginal and Metis Peoples. This could not have been done without the support of Simpson, the governor of the Hudson Bay Company which owned the routes he traveled through. Kane’s fascination with Native Americans is shown here through his addition of a native woman and her tippee, which Lefroy’s companion walks towards.

Lefroy took the painting with him when he left for England in 1853, and it remained in his family for 150 years. It was largely forgotten as the family had no knowledge of the artist or its value until researchers located the painting. It was put up for auction in 2002, and was sold by Sotheby’s Canada in Toronto for $5,062,500. It was originally appraised around $450,000 to $550,000, but two Americans bidding over the telephone along with the eventual buyer, media magnate Ken Thomson, drove up the price. The sale price more than doubled the previous record for a Canadian painting, which was $2.2 million for Lawren Harris’ Baffin Island, also bought by Thomson the previous year. The most that had been paid for a Kane work was previously was $525,000 for Portrait of Maungwudaus in 1999, almost a tenth of the amount paid by Thomson. Luckily, he shared the wealth: Scene in the Northwest was donated to the Art Gallery of Ontario, which is fitting as they were the ones who discovered it even existed.

 

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Here is what Wikipedia says about Scene in the Northwest: Portrait of John Henry Lefroy

Scene in the Northwest: Portrait of John Henry Lefroy, also known as The Surveyor, is a painting by Paul Kane circa 1845. It sold at auction in 2002 for C$5.1 million, making it the most expensive Canadian painting ever sold at that time. It was purchased by media magnate Ken Thomson, who donated it to the Art Gallery of Ontario. The painting depicts British explorer John Henry Lefroy on his successful expedition to map the Magnetic North Pole.

Lefroy returned to Toronto in November 1844 and it is likely that Kane painted him soon after that. Lefroy helped convince George Simpson to fund Kane's own western expeditions, which Kane began in June 1845. In the painting, Lefroy is dressed in the outfit of a coureur des bois wearing snow shoes, standing in front of a dog sled. In the background one of his companions walks towards a native woman's tipi.

Lefroy returned to England in 1853 and took the painting with him. The original remained in the Lefroy family for some 150 years, but they had no knowledge of the artist or its value. It was forgotten in Canada until researchers at the Library and Archives Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario learned of its existence and located it in the possession of one of Lefroy's descendants. They opted to put it up for auction in 2002. It sold at auction in February 2002 at Sotheby's Canada in Toronto for $5,062,500. The painting was appraised at $450,000 to $550,000, but a competitive auction vastly exceeded its appraised value as Thomson's agent competed with two American bidders. Its sale price more than doubled the previous record for a Canadian painting—$2.2 million for Lawren Harris's Baffin Island, which had been bought by Thomson the previous year. The sale price of Scene in the Northwest was almost ten times more than had ever had been paid for a Kane work; the previous record was $525,000 for Portrait of Maungwudaus in 1999.

While scholars had no knowledge of the original painting for over a century, a copy of the painting did remain in Canada. This version was acquired by the Glenbow Museum in Calgary in the 1950s. Its artist, and who was depicted, had been forgotten, leading to many decades of debate. Some scholars credited the Glenbow painting to Kane and others to Cornelius Krieghoff. The rediscovery of the much higher-quality original has led to the consensus opinion that it is a copy of Kane's piece done by a lesser artist of the same period. One possibility is that it was created by Kane's wife, Harriet Clench, herself a skilled painter.

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