Jan Van Empel (1880–1931) – Douglas Alaska 1926 (With Jean Palardy Inscription, 1927)
Object Details & Specifications
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- Artist: Jan Van Empel (Dutch – American, 1880–1931)
- Title: Douglas Alaska
- Medium: Oil on board
- Date: 1926 (Gifted May 31, 1927)
- Signature: Signed by the artist in the lower-left corner (“Jan Van Empel”)
- Dimensions:
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- Board: 10″ x 14″
- Framed: 16″ x 20″
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- Frame: Housed in a premium, period-appropriate ornate gilded composition frame.
Provenance & Historical Significance
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- Direct Artist Lineage: This painting was a personal gift from the artist, Jan Van Empel, to his student, the celebrated French-Canadian painter and filmmaker Jean Palardy (1905–1991).
- The Inscription: The verso features a handwritten dedication commemorating what Van Empel described as their ‘last evening in Chicoutimi’, Quebec, on May 31, 1927, celebrating their successful mentorship over “two bottles of wine.”
- Artist’s Collection Note: Features an additional cursive ink annotation in the top-left corner written and initialed by Jean Palardy (“J.P.”), identifying the scene as Douglas, Alaska, and noting that the community had ‘since then [been] destroyed by fire,’ a retrospective observation added years later while the painting remained in Palardy’s collection.
- N.F.S.
About the Scene
Van Empel lived and painted extensively in Alaska between 1924 and 1926. During this period he completed the Resurrection mural for St. Peter’s Church in Seward and produced some of his finest northern landscapes. Dated 1926, the present panel depicts Douglas, Alaska, near Juneau, and aligns closely with contemporary newspaper accounts documenting Van Empel’s painting activities in the region during the summer of that year. This panel from the summer of 1926 captures a small harbour vessel in the foreground against a backdrop of snow-capped peaks, with the town of Douglas below. Van Empel left Juneau on September 20, 1926. Douglas experienced major destructive fires during its history, including a significant fire later that year and a devastating fire on February 23, 1937, which left approximately 600 of the town’s 700 residents homeless. Palardy noted down years later when cataloging the piece in his personal collection.
A Farewell Over Wine:
Jan Van Empel, Jean Palardy, and a Historic Night in Chicoutimi
The reverse of a painted panel often holds clues just as compelling as the image itself. Written on the verso of this piece is a remarkable handwritten window into the early history of 20th-century Canadian art—a warm, personal inscription marking the exact final hours of a historic master-student relationship.
The Inscription Reads:
“To Jean Palardy / as a souvenir of the last evening in Chicoutimi, Que. / May 31st / 27 / Two bottles of wine and au revoir. / Best wishes, / Jan Van Empel”An additional notation in the upper left, signed “J.P.”, reads: “Douglass (sic), Alaska (since then destroyed by fire)”A further pencil notation just above Palardy’s, reads: “Douglas Alaska” likely the artist location note.
The Story Behind the Backing
Subsequent research from records preserved by the National Gallery of Canada confirms that Jean Palardy studied for several months under Jan Van Empel in the Saguenay, making this painting an exceptionally rare documented artifact of that teacher-student relationship. In the spring of 1927, a young Jean Palardy, having recently studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal—traveled north to the rugged Saguenay region of Quebec. He went there to study landscape painting under Jan Van Empel, a well-traveled Dutch-American master known for his atmospheric wilderness scenes.
For months, the veteran painter and the eager young French-Canadian student worked side-by-side, capturing the raw beauty of Chicoutimi. On the night of May 31, 1927, their formal time together came to an end.
Rather than a stiff, professional parting, Van Empel gifted this painting to his apprentice to commemorate their final night. The inscription beautifully captures the bohemian spirit of two artists commemorating what appears to have been a farewell gathering marked by “two bottles of wine” and an optimistic “au revoir” (until we meet again).
A Later Touch by Palardy
Years later, Palardy went back to this very backing. In the top corner, he added a note referencing Douglas, Alaska, a remote mining town Van Empel famously painted, noting that it had since been “destroyed by fire” (referencing the catastrophic historic blazes that razed the town). This small addition proves that Palardy kept and treasured this token of their friendship for decades.
While Jan Van Empel would continue his nomadic painting journey across North America, Jean Palardy would go on to become a towering pillar of French-Canadian culture—famed not only as a painter, but as a legendary filmmaker with the National Film Board (NFB) and the author of the definitive text The Early Furniture of French Canada.
This piece is more than an exceptional landscape; it is a physical, signed artifact documenting the exact moment a young Canadian master was passed the torch. More than a fine Alaskan landscape, this painting represents a rare convergence of artist, student, place, and documented history. Through its inscriptions, provenance, and surviving documentary record, it preserves a tangible connection between Jan Van Empel and Jean Palardy at a formative moment in Canadian art history.
Recent research has revealed Van Empel to be far more than a little-known Alaskan painter. Contemporary records place him in the artistic circles of Robert Henri, Edward Hopper, Jean Palardy, Robert Ayre, and Gordon Franklin Peers, tracing a remarkable career that stretched from New York and Alaska to the Canadian Rockies, Quebec, New England, Texas, and Mexico.
Copyright & Research Notice
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