Season Launch: 27 April 2018
While stationed in Kingston as an Ensign in 1831-1833, Charles Frederick Gibson painted the landscape and activities around him. This exhibition features his Kingston watercolours and drawings, alongside works by other contemporary artists, such as Lieutenant Edward Charles Frome, Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle and Harriet Dobbs Cartwright. Through Gibson’s eyes, we experience Kingston of the 1830s, as events of a military life unfold, both quotidian and monumental: from painting and sketching, to disease and ill-health, to the construction of the Rideau Canal and re-building of Fort Henry.
Charles F. Gibson, The Waterfront at Kingston from the St. Lawrence River, around 1832, pencil, sepia and grey wash on paper. Purchase, Chancellor Richardson Memorial Fund, Donald Murray Shepherd Fund, Susan M. Bazely, John Grenville, Brian S. Osborne and Joan M. Schwartz, 2016 (59-014.01)
Charles F. Gibson, Untitled (Men with Dogs, outside the Barracks of Fort Henry), around 1832, pencil, pen and ink, and watercolour on paper. Purchase, Chancellor Richardson Memorial Fund, Donald Murray Shepherd Fund, Susan M. Bazely, John Grenville, Brian S. Osborne and Joan M. Schwartz, 2016 (59-014.03)
Charles F. Gibson: Events of a Military Life in Kingston highlights recent additions to the Agnes collection as well as generous loans from Library and Archives Canada and Fort Henry, St. Lawrence Parks Commission, an Agency of the Government of Ontario. A beautifully illustrated publication, with an informed essay by guest curator Susan M. Bazely on Gibson’s life in Kingston has been generously supported by the Frontenac Heritage Foundation and the City of Kingston Arts Fund.