Posted to Canada: The Watercolours of George Russell Dartnell, 1835-1844

By: Honor De Pencier

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Synopsis: Posted to Canada examines, for the first time, the immense body of work created by George Dartnell, a British army surgeon stationed in Canada from 1835 to 1844. Dartnell, an accomplished and popular surgeon, sketched more than 150 scenes of a pristine Canada of dense forests, clear lakes and rough-edged beauty during his nine-year posting – all of which form an important part of Canada’s pre-photographic visual history. In this, the first book on Dartnell, his vibrant depictions of rural Quebec and Ontario, Montreal, Quebec City, Penetanguishene, London, and Port Talbot are examined in great detail. Dartnell’s work offers rare and insightful glimpses of both the life of a surgeon in the early nineteenth century and the fledgling communities in which he served. among the rare scenes portrayed by Dartnell lare the first known depictions of St. Marys, Ontario, and maple-sugaring near Penetanguishene. Of the dozens of sketches reproduced in the book, many have been culled from private collections and never before displayed publicly.