The Urban Landscape

By the early 20th century, large industrial towns had significantly encroached upon the virgin wilderness of North America. Crowded cities, immigrant tenements and shanties became the subjects of work by Ralph Albert Blakelock, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Jacob Riis, Edward S. Curtis, Alfred Stieglitz, Alexander Henderson, William Notman and J.E.H. MacDonald. At the same time, the city provided a dramatically exciting landscape of urban canyons, atmospheric mystery and brilliant colours exploited by Maurice Prendergast, Edward Steichen, Karl Struss, Paul Strand, Childe Hassam, Lucius O’Brien, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Cullen, and David Milne. The accompanying economic and international influences upon the shifting of national identity and its self-conscious characterisation will be explored in greater depth during this last phase of the exhibition.