Island Galleries: Renaissance presents Russell

Issue Date: 2010-01-22

John Wentworth Russell and the Mystery of the Two Nudes

An international art mystery which began in Paris and Toronto in the 1920s is being
played out at Renaissance Gallery right here on Pender Island.
In 1904, a 25-year-old Canadian painter named John Wentworth Russell left the
parochialism of his native country to try his luck in the capital of the art world, Paris.
Born near Hamilton, Ontario, and trained at the prestigious Art Student’s League of
New York, Russell attacked Paris with his sketchbook and his ambition. By 1906 he
had shown his work at the most important exhibition in the world’s most important
art city, the famous Paris Salon. Among his many commissions were several
illustrations for Vogue Magazine, including his first at the tender age of 20 years.

During the next 50 years he established his name as one of Canada’s top
international artists. He painted five portraits of Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfred
Laurier, another of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, and yet another of
King Edward VIII.

Russell was a loner. He joined no painting circles. He regarded the Canadian
Group of Seven as amateurs, referring to them as the “jazz band of Canadian
art.” In an article in the Toronto Telegram he was described as “member of
nothing, honoured (by request) by nobody.”
Still his fame grew. It culminated in 1927 with two shows, one at the Paris
Salon, another at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. At the Salon,
critics raved over a large oil canvas of a reclining nude, and it was hung in a
place of honour. Many called the painting the best work at that year’s Salon.
Meanwhile across the ocean, another nude, named “ A Modern Fantasy” caused
a different sensation. The Toronto Globe ran a review under the headline
“Objectionable Pictures.” The Toronto Star countered with “Why make
vulgarity a divine thing?” Yet the exhibition broke all previous attendance
records for the CNE, with 158,888 people filing past the “Fantasy,” more than
doubling the previous year’s attendance. Russell, himself, dismissed
Canadian’s priggishness as “backwoods” and returned to Paris.
Throughout his painting life, Russell travelled throughout Europe with his
wife, Anna, painting in Greece, Spain, France, and Canada. His work was
collected by all the major galleries in Canada, the National Gallery of Canada,
the National Archives of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Hamilton Art
Gallery, and the House of Commons. When he died in 1959, his body of work
was comparable in quality and quantity with any Canadian artist, living or
dead.
Flash forward a decade
Flash forward a decade. A young art student and restorer, Jan Huk, escapes the
communism of his native Prague, emigrates to Toronto and opens a gallery next
to a bookstore. He makes friends with a saleswoman in the bookstore. Anna
Russell discovers Jan’s skill with art restoration and invites him to her
apartment. There Jan discovers the work of this widow’s husband, John
Wentworth Russell.
Trained in Europe, Jan could see how talented the Canadian-born but Europeinfluenced
Russell was. “He was a master. He worked in every media--pencil,
water, oil, etchings. The works were super-real, yet they were free hand. He
could do anything!”
Jan helped the widow with the paintings. He repaired some. He built a steel
cabinet on her balcony for her clothes so she could hang more of her beloved
husband’s works in her tiny apartment. They dined together. She taught him
about Spanish wine and Canadian antiques. When Jan married Milada, she, too,
became one of Anna’s closest friends. But something was wrong.
“I could see how good these paintings were,” Jan says, “but his reputation had
faded because his wife had hoarded his paintings. They weren’t on the market.
Anna was dirt poor but lived surrounded by riches. I tried to convince her to
have a big show so she could make some money and put Russell’s name back on
the Canadian art map. But she couldn’t part with them. They were the last
reminder of her husband, and she loved them too much.”
When Anna died ten years ago, she left the paintings to the National Gallery of
Canada. But with no budget for restoration, the NGC refused all except those in
perfect condition. The family offered Jan and Milada first chance to buy the
works, and because of Jan’s abilities at restoration, they bought “hundreds” of
paintings. Among them, two large nudes in oil, both painted in Paris, one in
1923 and one in 1927. Both needed thorough cleaning, and Jan set to work.