Nature Domesticated

Artistic representations of the wonders of nature provided opportunities for city dwellers to escape the stresses and demands of urban life and to contemplate the mysteries of life. The Arcadian visions of Thomas Eakins, the resort culture captured by William Merritt Chase, Winslow Homer and Maurice Prendergast and the sea and wilderness conjured by Winslow Homer, Frederic Remington and John Singer Sargent had their Canadian corollaries in works by William Brymner, J.W. Morrice, Maurice Cullen, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Côté and the Group of Seven. The photography of Carleton E. Watkins, Thomas Eakins and William Notman also echoes these themes.