Paul Kane - Legacy and Influence

Legacy and Influence

As one of the first Canadian painters who could earn a living from his artwork alone, Kane prepared the ground for many later artists. His travels inspired others to similar journeys, and a very direct artistic influence is evident in the case of F. A. Verner, whose mentor Kane became in his later years. According to Harper, the early Lucius O'Brien was also influenced by Kane's work. Kane's 1848 exhibition of his sketches, which included 155 watercolour and 85 oil on paper paintings, helped establish the genre in the minds of the public and cleared the way for artists like William Cresswell or Daniel Fowler, who both were able to make a living from their watercolour paintings.

Both his 1848 exhibition of the sketches and the later 1852 show of some of his oil paintings were great success and lauded by several newspapers. Kane was the most prominent painter in Upper Canada in his time. He frequently entered his paintings at art exhibitions and won numerous prizes for his works. He dominated the scene throughout the 1850s, even to the point where an art jury all but presented their excuses when they did not award him the prize in the category for historical paintings at the annual exhibition of the Upper Canada Agricultural Society in 1852. (Kane won that prize consecutively in all years until 1859, though.)

Kane was one of the first, if not the first, tourist to travel across the Canadian west and the Pacific north-west. Through his sketches and paintings, and later also his book, the public at large in Upper and Lower Canada for the first time caught a glimpse of the peoples and their lifestyles in this vast and barely known territory. Kane had set out with a sincere desire to accurately portray his experiences—the landscape, the people, their tools. Yet it was primarily his embellished studio work that gained public appeal and made him famous. His idealized oil paintings and the similarly transformed travel notes that became his book were both a factor in the establishment and spreading of the perception of the North American indigenous people as noble savages, contrary to what the artist had intended. The more truthful field sketches were "rediscovered" and valued by a wider audience only in the twentieth century.

In 1937 Kane was declared a National Historic Person, and a plaque to commemorate him was dedicated in Rocky Mountain House in 1952.

On 11 August 1971, the year of the centenary of Kane's death, Canada Post issued a postage stamp entitled 'Paul Kane, painter', designed by William Rueter based on Kane's painting "Indian Encampment on Lake Huron". The 7¢ stamps have 12.5 perforation and were printed by the British American Bank Note Company.