A Cultural Trade? Canadian Magazine Illustrators at Home and in the United States, 1880-1960 A Dissertation Presented by Shannon Jaleen Grove to The Graduate School in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor oF Philosophy in Art History and Criticism Stony Brook University May 2014 Copyright by Shannon Jaleen Grove 2014 Stony Brook University The Graduate School Shannon Jaleen Grove We, the dissertation committee for the above candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, hereby recommend acceptance of this dissertation. Michele H. Bogart – Dissertation Advisor Professor, Department of Art Barbara E. Frank - Chairperson of Defense Associate Professor, Department of Art Raiford Guins - Reader Associate Professor, Department of Cultural Analysis and Theory Brian Rusted - Reader Associate Professor, Department of Art / Department of Communication and Culture University of Calgary This dissertation is accepted by the Graduate School Charles Taber Dean of the Graduate School ii Abstract of the Dissertation A Cultural Trade? Canadian Magazine Illustrators at Home and in the United States, 1880-1960 by Shannon Jaleen Grove Doctor of Philosophy in Art History and Criticism Stony Brook University 2014 This dissertation analyzes nationalisms in the work of Canadian magazine illustrators in Toronto and New York, 1880 to 1960. Using a continentalist approach—rather than the nationalist lens often employed by historians of Canadian art—I show the existence of an integrated, joint North American visual culture. Drawing from primary sources and biography, I document the social, political, corporate, and communication networks that illustrators traded in. I focus on two common visual tropes of the day—that of the pretty girl and that of wilderness imagery. Through visual and verbal rhetoric, and through institutional controls to exclude particular kinds of illustration from counting as culturally or artistically worthy, nationalist politicians, writers, and illustrators built a sense of difference between American and Canadian cultures by owning the wilderness imagery, while distancing themselves from the pretty girl imagery practiced by expatriates in New York and by some peers in Toronto. In reality, however, both wilderness and pretty girl illustration evolved from American print culture, and both continued to be practiced by Canadians and Americans together. I document and contextualize some subtle differences, but essentially this joint visual culture drew Canadian and American readerships closer, and did indeed “Americanize” Canadians just as nationalists feared. The Americanized depiction of women in particular spelled a loss of individuality and active citizenship for iii Canadian women. But where nationalists believed that similarity of print consumption would lead to the political annexation of Canada by the United States, I find that the modicum of difference coupled with the patriotic visual culture centred on wilderness imagery, deployed by nationalists, staved off assimilation. Furthermore, I find that by maintaining similarity with Americans, the persistence of Canadian production and consumption of “American” illustration contributed to a break with British culture that facilitated Canada’s emerging nationhood. Similarity has also contributed to a friendliness with the United States that has ensured and continues to ensure that the U.S. does not perceive Canada as a threat—thus reducing likelihood of annexation by force or suasion, while affording Canadians economic benefits. I conclude, then, that “Americanized” Canadian illustration has not been a case of cultural weakness and betrayal, as nationalist policy has treated it. Rather, continentalist Canadian illustration has always been a legitimate expression of Canadian identity, and a key component in maintaining Canadian sovereignty. iv This dissertation is gratefully dedicated to Walt Reed and Roger Reed for immense generosity, expertise, time, love, and support, while facing great setbacks yourselves. You exemplify the best values of the illustration community. v Frontispiece. S. Jaleen Grove, Giantess. Watercolour, 1997. Collection of the author. vi Table of Contents Abstract iii Dedication v List of Figures ix Preface xiv Acknowledgements xv Introduction Canadian Illustration and Canadian Identity 1 Organization of the dissertation 14 Limits of this study 16 Chapter 1 The Trading Post at the Border: A Continentalist 19 Approach to Canadian Cultural Iconography Expatriate continentalism 23 A cultural trade 28 Negotiating divergence and convergence: the themes of wilderness and pretty-girl Sources 33 The visibility and invisibility of illustration 34 Chapter 2 The Glamour Girl Racket: Arthur William Brown, Russell Patterson, and the Pretty-Girl Tradition 42 A continentalist perspective on expatriate motives 43 The pretty girl genre 47 The lifestyle and outlook of pretty girl illustrators 49 Modeling and women’s self-fashioning 53 The Patterson Girl as commercial role model 58 Patriotic glamour: Arthur William Brown’s Claudia 62 Judging Miss America 67 The tradeoffs 69 Chapter 3 Arthur Heming and the Wilderness Tradition in Canada 73 Continentalism in visual culture prior to 1910 74 Canadian School art and nationalism after 1910 80 Nationalist propaganda in Heming’s mature works 88 vii Continentalism in Heming’s nationalism 95 Heming’s critical reception and impact on national identity 100 Chapter 4 Miss Civilization? The Pretty Girl in Canada 108 Miss Canada 109 Good Miss Civilization 113 Women’s magazines and the Canadian Woman 120 Criticism of the American Girl 122 Rex Woods and the Canadian Woman, 1930-1947 130 Rex Woods and the bread-and-butter style 139 Canadian difference in Rex Woods’ pretty girl illustration 143 Rex Woods and advertising 149 Impact of Rex Woods and the Canadian Woman on the visual culture of glamour in Canada after 1945 159 Trading off a voice for Glamour 170 Chapter 5 Dividing the Borderlands: Outdoors With Thoreau MacDonald and John F. Clymer 172 Illustrators’ trade-offs: continental versus parochial 173 Thoreau MacDonald and cultural nationalism 175 Maria Chapdelaine and suppression of the pretty girl 186 John Clymer as Canadian artist 192 John Clymer and the continentalist wilderness 201 Making continentalist Canada invisible 207 Conclusion The Bending Tree and the Helpmeet Wife 215 Cultural Trades 215 Benefits of Sameness 218 Benefits of Difference 221 Balancing Nationalism and Continentalism 223 Contemporary Art and Illustration 227 Epilogue 229 Bibliography 230 viii List of Figures Frontispiece. Jaleen Grove, Giantess. Watercolour, 1997. Collection of vi the author. Figure 1. Anonymous [cartoon]. Dominion Illustrated, February 5 1892, unpaginated back matter. Victoria University Library, Toronto. Figure 2. Charles W. Jefferys, “A Quiet Evening in a Canadian Home 7 [cartoon],” The Moon, June 25, 1902, 52. W.D. Jordan Library Special Collections and Music Library, Queen’s University. Figure 3. Anonymous photographer. Arthur William Brown and 52 unidentified model performing in a Society of Illustrators show. Unknown date. Arthur William Brown fonds, New York Society of Illustrators. Figure 4. Unidentified newspaper. Arthur William Brown, A Type of 55 the Modern American Girl, 1927. Arthur William Brown fonds, New York Society of Illustrators. Figure 5. Russell Patterson, Runaway Ruth, New York Journal, June 59 1, 1929. Collection of Mathieu Bertrand. Reproduced with permission of King Features. © 1929 Distributed By King Features Syndicate, Inc. Figure 6: Arthur William Brown, illustration of Claudia, Rose 65 Franken, “Secret Alliance,” Redbook, November 1938, 25. New York Public Library, microfilm. Hearst Corporation. Figure 7. Arthur Heming, illustrations for Caspar Whitney, On Snow- 75 Shoes To The Barren Grounds: Twenty-Eight Miles After Musk-Oxen And Wood-Bison (New York: Harper, 1896). Figure 8. Arthur Heming, [cover illustration for “The Drama of Our 91 Great Forests”], Maclean’s, Nov. 15, 1920. New York Public Library. Figure 9. Arthur Heming, “The Living Forest [illustration],” 95 MacLean’s, Sept. 1, 1925, 25. New York Public Library. Rogers Communications. ix Figure 10. Arthur Heming, Arrest of a Whiskey Smuggler, 1931, oil on 96 canvas, 74.5 cm x 100.4 cm. Collection of the Province of Ontario, 619868. Photograph by the author. Figure 11. J.W. Bengough, “Goods Prohibited, but Evils Permitted,” 110 Grip, April 26, 1879. Reproduced in A Caricature History of Canadian Politics (Toronto: Grip Printing and Publishing Co, 1886), 209. Figure 12. Tom Merry, Trying Her Constancy: A Dangerous Flirtation 112 [lithograph], ca.1885-1890. Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. R9266-3552 Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana. MIKAN no. 2838080. Figure 13. “Sammy.” Albert Hahn & Co., 1905. Collection of Michael J. 113 Smith. Figure 14. [Illustration], Joseph St. John, The Canadian Girl: March 115 and Two Step (Toronto : A.H. Goetting, c1910). Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 23888923. Figure 15. “With a Typical Canadian Girl [postcard],” Atkinson Bros 117 (Toronto), ca. 1905. Collection of Michael J. Smith. Figure 16. A.G. Racey, “The American Girl: Final Announcement,” The 124 Moon, July 26, 1902, 126. W.D. Jordan Library Special Collections and Music Library, Queen’s University. Figure 17. C.W. Jefferys, “The Summer Girl of 1902,” The Moon, 126 August 2, 1902, 1. W.D. Jordan Library Special Collections and Music Library, Queen’s University. Figure 18. Marjorie G. Oborne [illustrated letter to Arthur William