Kanata

Art Gallery of Ontario

Robert Houle. Kanata, 1992. Acrylic and conte crayon on canvas, 228.7 x 732 cm. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Purchased 1994. © Robert Houle A long rectangular canvas is divided into three areas, resembling The French national flag - blue, white, and red. Framed by the bright blue and bright red of the French Flag, a bleached copy of a central historical painting by American painter, Benjamin West,The Death of General Wolfe, depicts the Battle of Quebec in 1759. Men, including enlisted soldiers holding up a British flag, settlers, and an Indigenous man, gather around the British General Wolfe who lies dying. The indigenous man is represented thinking, holding his chin and resting his elbow on his knee like the famous Rodin sculpture, “The Thinker”. The Indigenous man stands out from the washed out sepia crowd, painted with a bright blue and red blanket tied around his waist, a brown bandolier bag, and red feathers in his hair. Houle draws attention to the misrepresentation of Indigenous Peoples as merely passive observers, pointing instead to their direct stake in the history of Canada and the United States.