Paul Kane, September 3, 1810 – February 20, 1871, was an Irish-born Canadian artist. His family moved from Mallow, County Cork, to York, Upper Canada, around 1819. He was largely self-taught, worked as a furniture decorator and later as a coach, sign, and house painter, and may have received instruction from Thomas Drury, drawing master at Upper Canada College.
Kane exhibited with the Society of Artists and Amateurs of Toronto in 1834. He travelled in the United States and Europe before returning to Toronto in 1845, then made journeys through the Canadian West between 1845 and 1848. George William Allan became his principal patron and commissioned a cycle of one hundred paintings. Kane published Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America in 1859. No documented students have been identified for this biography.
Principal collections of Kane's work include the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and the Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas. The Royal Ontario Museum holds the Allan cycle; the National Gallery of Canada holds eleven surviving paintings from the commission for the Library of Parliament; and the Stark Museum of Art holds a substantial group of field sketches.
Unknown photographer
Photograph of Paul Kane, c 1850s
Waugh-be-nim, 1849–1856
Oil on canvas, 25 x 20 in
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
A Babbine Chief, 1849–1856
Oil on canvas, 30 x 24.5 in
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
A Flat Head Woman, Whitby's Island, 1849–1856
Oil on canvas, 25.4 x 20.2 in
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
The Man That Always Rides, 1849–1856
Oil on canvas, 18.2 x 24 in
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
An Indian of the Dalles, Columbia River/Portrait of Mancemuckt, Chief of the Skin village, 1849–1856
Oil on canvas, 25 x 20 in
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
Cree Indians Travelling, 1849–1856
Oil on canvas, 18.2 x 29.1 in
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
Mount St. Helens, 1849–1856
Oil on canvas, 18.2 x 29.3 in
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
An Esquimaux/Portrait of Ogemawwah Chack, The Spirit Chief, 1849–1856
Oil on canvas, 31.1 x 26 in
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
A Clallum Girl, 1849–1856
Oil on canvas, 25 x 20.2 in
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
The War Cap/Portrait of Chief Otisskun, The Horn, 1849–1856
Oil on canvas, 30.2 x 25.2 in
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
Kee-akee-ka-saa-ka-wow/The man that gives the war whoop, Head Chief of the Crees, 1849–1856
Oil on canvas, 29.9 x 25 in
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
Awbonwaishkum, 1849–1856
Oil on canvas, 25.2 x 19.9 in
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
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