Alexis Arts 1940-2015 - Nash Gallery

Alexis Arts (1940-2015) RCA
Title: ” Winter Reflections ”
Board Size: 11″ x 13 1/2″ ( 19 3/4″ x 21 1/4″ framed ) ………$1,095.00 Canadian

Winter Reflections (Dec. 25, 76) — A Personal Gift by Alexis Arts, RCA

This work offers a rare, intimate look at the private life of Alexis Arts. Unlike his larger gallery commissions, this 11″ x 13 1/2″ oil on canvas panel was a Christmas gift for his sweetheart and lifelong companion, Helena, in 1976.

Rather than using thick, heavy paint, Arts relies here on subtle gradations of color and thin, masterful layers to capture the “quiet” of a Canadian winter night. The moonlight reflecting off the water is achieved through a precise control of tone—a skill honed through his Dutch apprenticeship and his years as a professor at Concordia.

A Hand-Finished Presentation:
The painting is housed in a substantial 19 3/4″ x 21 1/4″ repurposed vintage frame that Alexis personally adapted for this piece. You can see the artist’s hand in every detail:

- The Custom Fit: He only used a portion of a 12”x16” canvas board and carefully “windowed” the composition to 11″ x 13 1/2″, allowing the scene to work within the frame.
- The Artist’s Wash: To bridge the gap between the painting and the wall, Arts applied a custom pale-blue wash to the frame’s ornate decoration. This subtle tint pulls the cool nocturnal blues out of the landscape, creating a unified atmosphere that feels “finished” by the artist himself.

Provenance & Authenticity:
The back of the panel reveals the heart of the piece with a handwritten dedication:

“To my sweetheart Helena (Dec. 25 ’76) from your Alexis.”

Signed and titled twice, this is a uniquely documented artifact from a member of the Royal Canadian Academy. It represents a moment where academic mastery met a deeply personal gesture.

Born in Nijmegen, Holland, Alexis Arts (1940–2015) was a Dutch-Canadian painter who became one of Eastern Canada’s most respected contemporary Impressionists. His career was defined by a unique bridge between his Dutch technical heritage and the rugged beauty of the Canadian landscape.

This work comes with a documented history within the Ontario academic community. Most recently, it was held in the private collection of a Brock University professor and his wife in the Pelham/Ridgeville area.

Early Life and Apprenticeship

Arts grew up in a family centred around culture; his mother was an author and his brother a pianist. His primary influence was his father, Dorus Arts, a renowned Dutch painter from whom he inherited a disciplined apprenticeship. Through his father, Alexis was deeply influenced by the Hague School—a late 19th-century Dutch movement characterized by atmospheric realism, “autumnal melancholy,” and a mastery of grey and brown tones to capture light.

Emigration and Canadian Education

The family emigrated to Canada in 1955, when Alexis was 15. He continued his formal training at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, studying both day and evening sessions from 1955 to 1960. This period allowed him to blend European traditionalism with the emerging Canadian artistic identity of the mid-20th century.

Professional Career and Teaching

The Eaton’s Era: Following his father’s death in 1961, Alexis began selling his work at the Eaton’s Gallery and the Gemst Gallery in Montreal. He held his first solo show at Eaton’s in 1963 and his first major Canadian solo show in Vieux Longueuil in 1972.
Concordia University: For nine years starting in 1990, he served as a professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts. He was known for telling students they were there to “relearn how to see,” emphasizing that while he taught the techniques of “construction,” Nature remained the ultimate teacher.
The RCA: He was an elected member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA), a significant professional honour in Canada.

Artistic Vision

Arts was a prolific painter, often producing 35 to 40 canvases a year, which he famously referred to as his “children.” His work, which included notable streetscapes of Montreal and Ottawa and vast rural landscapes, was deeply inspired by classical music (Beethoven, Bach, Debussy). He spent his final years in Orangeville, Ontario, where he passed away in 2015.