Paul Kane - Travels in The Northwest

Travels in The Northwest

Kane set out on his own on June 17, 1845, travelling along the northern shores of the Great Lakes, visiting first the Saugeen reservation. After weeks of sketching, he reached Sault Ste. Marie between Lake Superior and Lake Huron in summer 1845. He had intended to travel further west, but John Ballenden, an experienced officer of the Hudson's Bay Company stationed at Sault Ste. Marie, told him of the many difficulties and perils of travelling alone through the western territories and advised Kane to attempt such a feat only with the support of the company. After the Hudson's Bay Company had taken over its competitor, the North West Company of Montreal, in 1821, the whole territory west of the Great Lakes until the Pacific Ocean and the Oregon Country was Hudson's Bay land, a largely uncharted wilderness with about a hundred isolated outposts of the company along the major fur trade routes. Kane returned to Toronto for the winter, elaborating his field sketches to oil canvases, and in spring of the next year, he went to the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company at Lachine (today part of Montreal) and asked company governor George Simpson for support for his travel plans. Simpson was impressed by Kane's artistic ability, but at the same time worried that Kane might not have the stamina needed to travel with the fur brigades of the company. He granted Kane passage on company canoes only as far as Lake Winnipeg, with the promise of full passage if the artist did well until then. At the same time, he commissioned Kane to do paintings of Indian lifestyle for him, with some very detailed instructions as to the subjects.