Who was Paul Kane?
Who was Paul Kane?
Paul Kane was born in Ireland but came to York (Toronto) as a boy. He studied painting at Upper Canada College and after working in Detroit, Michigan and Mobile, Alabama he went to Europe for two years to study his art.
Having developed an interest in western Indians, Kane arranged to visit their territories, leaving Toronto in May 1846. He went as far west as Fort Vancouver on the Columbia and over to Victoria and returned in October 1848.
His field sketches and watercolours are an important record of a period before photography. Returning to Toronto, he spent six year making a series of 100 large oil paintings from his work.
Kane's Wanderings of an Artist Among the Indians of North America was published in 1859 and is a classic travel book well worth reading.
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