Two Foxhounds 1895
10 7/8″ x 8 1/2″
Price ………..$595 Canadian
Frederic Charles Vipont ( Vipond ) Ede Canadian / French
Although sheep or cattle were the more commonly painted domesticated animals by Ede, he did produce a number of works with dogs. One such watercolour was exhibited at the Royal Canadian Academy in 1889 #112 titled “Dogs. In this 1895 watercolour, two foxhounds are tethered to a small tree in the countryside. While one dog has something in his mouth awaiting his owner, the other appears preoccupied by the artist at work.
Raised in Canada, Frederic Ede’s academic training and activities with various art societies allowed him to develop a strong relationship with the Canadian art scene. Although this would slowly erode with his time living abroad, he never forgot early life in Canada.
Ede studied at the Ontario School of Arts under George Reid and William Edwin Atkinson. He started exhibiting at the RCA in 1883 and the OSA in 1884. While in Montreal, he studied with Maurice Cullen, exhibiting at the Art Association of Montreal Museum in 1889. The artist then furthered his studies abroad at Julian Academy under William Bouguereau and Tony-Robert Fleury.
Comfortable painting in either watercolour or oil, the French countryside provided an abundant choice of subject matter. Common themes for the artist were farms and their livestock, the banks of the Loing canal system, forests and meadows. Though he did have a studio, Ede preferred working outdoors (en plein air). He would leave on foot or by bicycle with his easel and his box of watercolours or oils.
Now living in Sorgues [Sorques] (near Paris) for sometime, it seemed the artist still had a bond with the Canadian art scene. However, after 1893 that would change. In 1893 Frederic Ede exhibited these six paintings at the Royal Canadian Academy and also representing Canada with the Canadian Department of Fine Art at the World’s Columbian Exhibition 1893:
#34 Landscape with Cattle, France
#35 Landscape with Cattle, France
#36 Landscape with Sheep
#37 At Sorgues, near Paris
#38 Landscape near Fontainbleau
#39 Barnyard with Poultry
The artist was now selling art through galleries in Paris, exhibiting works in French Salons, and working for American art Galleries. In 1896 Frederic Ede married and with his wife he had three children, Elizabeth, Edith and Jacques. Later in life the artist moved to Montigny-sur-Loing, overlooking the forest of Fontainebleau. He maintained strong ties with his American cousin Olive, writing her often:
“The Great forest of Fontainebleau is just back of our house. You cannot imagine what joy it is to me to pass my time there among the great rocks and under the whispering pine trees. There I imagine myself back to old Canada again and I can muse and paint. O just a watercolour now and again that is all, my health does not allow me to drag about a heavy paint box and canvas and paint big pictures.”
~[Letter to Cousin Olive & Family – December 22, 1937]~
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