The Habitus of Mackenzie King: Canadian Artists, Cultural Capital and the Struggle for Power Anton Reinhold Wagner A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Theatre and Performance Studies York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada September, 2014 © Anton Reinhold Wagner, 2014 Abstract This dissertation analyzes the struggle between William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s longest-serving Prime Minister (1922-1930, 1935-1948), and Canadian artists to define and determine the nature and distribution of arts and culture in Canada prior to the 1949 Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of habitus, “fields” of knowledge and power, and religious, social and cultural capital, the dissertation analyzes the central paradox of why—despite his decades-long involvement in half-a-dozen artistic disciplines—King failed to implement cultural policies as Prime Minister that would have benefited Canadian artists and the arts and culture in Canada. The dissertation applies Pierre Bourdieu’s model of social change in which “priests” with conservation strategies and charismatic “prophets” with subversion strategies compete among the “laity” for consumers of their respective symbolic goods to document how artists organized locally and nationally to accumulate social, cultural and political capital in their attempt to compel the federal government to implement their cultural objectives—state support for the arts. The dissertation posits that Mackenzie King’s inability to control his sexual impulses led him to espouse a conception of art whose primary function was to project Christian character and ideals. By establishing King’s religious and sexual habiti, I am able to show why he felt compelled to project such an idealized characterization in works of art depicting himself, members of his family, and public figures whose service to the nation he felt should be emulated by Canadians. As Leader of the Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and as Prime Minister, King was able to use his political and economic power in the political field over three decades (1919-1948) to define who was a real artist and who was not, what constituted artistic legitimacy and what was the artistic and economic value of Canadian cultural production. The dissertation suggests that the analysis of King’s relationship with the arts and artists provides the key to unlocking the enigma of Mackenzie King and that in the struggle between artists and the Prime Minister over the nature and distribution of arts and culture in Canada, the artists won. ii Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my mother, Dr. Maria Wagner. Without her encouragement and support, this study could not have been written. iii Acknowledgement I would like to express my appreciation to the York University Faculty of Graduate Studies and the Graduate Department of Theatre and Performance Studies for their support during the research and writing phase of this dissertation. A year-long research fellowship with Prof. Christopher Innes, Canada Research Chair in Performance and Culture, enabled me to investigate the cultural and historical background of my research topic. A course with Prof. Joyce Zemans provided insights into the development of Canadian federal cultural policies. An independent study course on Pierre Bourdieu with Prof. Marlis Schweitzer allowed me to explore my theoretical framework for the dissertation. An independent study course with Prof. Don Rubin on William Lyon Mackenzie King and problems of historiography and revisionism made it possible to begin to analyze the voluminous primary and secondary research materials on Canada’s longest-serving Prime Minister. Special thanks are due to my dissertation committee, Don Rubin, Marlis Schweitzer and Prof. Ross Stuart, whose encouragement and advice have been invaluable. I also thank the Library and Archives Canada for its guardianship of the Mackenzie King fonds and other related materials. iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Dedication iii Acknowledgement iv List of Illustrations vi Introduction 1 Chapter I The Enigma of Mackenzie King 7 Chapter II Mackenzie King’s Habitus and Pierre Bourdieu’s Concept of Social and Cultural Capital 59 Chapter III The Conflict Between Mackenzie King’s Religious and Sexual Habitus: Sins of the Flesh and the Projection of Character 103 Chapter IV Mackenzie King’s Structured Habitus at the Turn of the Twentieth Century 169 Chapter V The First Fruits of Habitus: The Harper Monument and The Secret of Heroism 213 Chapter VI The Field of Cultural Production and Mackenzie King’s Cultural Authority 1900-1930 259 Chapter VII Prophets and Priests: Canadian Artists and the Struggle for Cultural Democracy 320 Chapter VIII Mackenzie King in the Fields of National and International Cultural Production 375 Chapter IX The Prophets’ “March on Ottawa” 453 Chapter X The “Priestly” Mackenzie King 518 Conclusion: The Habitus of Mackenzie King: Canadian Artists, Cultural Capital and the Struggle for Power 648 Bibliography 706 v List of Illustrations J.W.L. Forster’s 1905 portrait of Isabel King. 18 J.W.L. Forster’s 1900 William Lyon Mackenzie portrait. 80 Walter Allward’s 1940 bust of William Lyon Mackenzie. 81 Mackenzie King with his sister Bella and John and Isabel King in the late 1880s. 139 J.W.L. Forster’s 1902 portrait of John King. 152 J.W.L. Forster’s 1902 portrait of Mackenzie King. 153 J.W.L. Forster’s 1901 portrait of Isabel King. 154 Anton Weber’s 1900 portrait of Isabel King. 207 Mackenzie King, October 1905. 214 Bert Harper circa 1900. 215 Andrew G. Blair, his wife, Bessie Blair and Sydney Fisher, Minister of Agriculture. 217 George Frederick Watts’ Sir Galahad. 225 Ernest Wise Keyser’s winning 1903 model of the Harper Monument. 228 Ernest Wise Keyser’s revised 1904 model. 229 Mackenzie King, Keyser and W.W. Campbell at the Harper Monument, 1905. 232 Dedication of the Harper monument, November 18, 1905. 235 Harper as the ideal of public service. 236 Private viewing of John Wentworth Russell’s 1924 Laurier portrait. 302 mile Brunet’s 1924 winning model for the Laurier monument on Parliament Hill. 314 Unveiling of mile Brunet’s Laurier monument on Parliament Hill, August 3, 1927. 316 Walter Allward’s winning 1921 plaster maquette for the Vimy Memorial. 324 Vimy Pilgrims gather in front of the Memorial after the 1936 unveiling. 325 Pierre-Charles Lenoir’s L’Infini. 379 Pierre-Charles Lenoir’s 1929 plaque Light at Eventide. 380 Pierre-Charles Lenoire’s 1937 King portrait medal. 381 Frederick Lessore sculpting Isabel King, photographed by Mackenzie King, in 1914. 386 Frederic Lessore’s 1914 relief of Isabel King. 388 vi A Louie Burrell watercolour ca. 1914 in Library and Archives Canada. 392 Giuseppe Guastalla’s bronze Visions. 398 Giuseppe Guastalla’s 1922 marble portrait bust of Isabel King. 401 Kathleen Shackleton’s 1927 King portrait. 404 The 1927 Message of the Carillon photo. 405 Mackenzie King’s 1935 corrections to Guastalla’s portrait bust of John King. 411 Giuseppe Guastalla’s portrait busts of John and Isabel King at Laurier House. 412 Giuseppe Guastalla’s 1935 portrait bust of Mackenzie King at Laurier House. 413 Mackenzie King’s shrine to his mother at Laurier House. 415 Tait McKenzie’s 1906 medallion Wilfred Campbell. 416 The Wilfred Campbell Memorial, Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa. 422 George William Hill’s completed 1926 Nurses’ Memorial. 424 Tait McKenzie’s revised May1929 sketch model for the Confederation Memorial. 430 Tait McKenzie’s 1932 Confederation Memorial. 436 Tait McKenzie’s 1938 model for the Sir Arthur Doughty monument. 444 Emanuel Hahn’s 1935 silver dollar. 445 The completed McKenzie-Hahn Doughty Memorial. 448 Homer Watson’s 1880 The Pioneer Mill, Windsor Castle Royal Collection. 536 Lawren Harris’s 1922 Above Lake Superior. 540 Homer Watson’s 1933 Evening Moonrise and Moonlit Stream at Laurier House. 552 Carl Ahrens 1922 The Road. 557 Stanley Gordon Moyer’s 1925 King portrait. 566 Sir William Orpen’s 1926 King portrait. 568 A LAC photo of J.W.L. Forster’s 1932-33 King portrait. 573 Josef Hilpert’s 1941 portrait of President Roosevelt. 577 , 1937 World’s Fair. 580 Proposed design for a 1941 stamp commemorating Canadian, American and British friendship. 585 The National Gallery in three floors of the Victoria Memorial Museum. 587 Deane Russell at the 1942 St. Francis Xavier University handicraft conference. 620 vii Yousuf Karsh’s April 15, 1941 King portrait. 653 Felix de Weldon’s 1938 bust of Mackenzie King in his Oxford gown. 655 Avard Fairbanks’ 1943 King bust. 660 The 1944 Liberal Party banquet with Fairbanks’ sculptures of King and his terrier Pat. 662 1939 dedication of the National War Memorial by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. 665 Frank O. Salisbury in the Gallery at Sarum Chase, London. 670 Frank O. Salisbury’s 1937 King portrait. 671 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at the entrance of Parliament, May 19, 1939. 673 Frank O. Salisbury’s 1941“The King Saluting Canada.” 675 Frank O. Salisbury’s 1944 portrait of Isabel King. 678 Frank O. Salisbury’s 1945 “The Rt. Hon. William Lyon Mackenzie King.” 680 The 1947 unveiling of the Sir Robert Borden and Mackenzie King portraits. 682 viii Introduction: This dissertation seeks to analyze the struggle between William Lyon Mackenzie King and Canadian artists to define and determine the nature and distribution of arts and culture in Canada prior to the 1949 Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences. Historians have ranked Mackenzie King, Canada’s longest-serving Prime Minister (1922-1930, 1935-1948), among the greatest of Canadian Prime Ministers. But they have also characterized him as one of our most enigmatic statesmen and as a philistine who had no interest in arts and culture.