Charles Macdonald Manly, ARCA, OSA (1855–1924)
Title: The Haystack (Barnyard with Chickens)
Medium: Pastel on Paper
Size: 8″ x 13″ mat opening / visible artwork (Framed to 15 1/8″ x 20 1/8″) …………… $950 Canadian.
This original pastel captures an intimate, beautifully lit slice of rural Ontario life centered around a towering haystack. Rather than painting a wide barnyard, Charles Macdonald Manly focuses on the dramatic form of the hayrick, using dry pastels to build a soft, rich texture that perfectly mimics dry straw catching the late afternoon sun. Below, a lively flock of chickens scatters across the foreground, adding movement and brilliant flecks of color against the dark shadows. The weathered wood of the barn in the background roots the scene firmly in early Canadian agriculture.
The piece is presented in its original period frame with age appropriate wear, featuring a beautifully profiled molding finished with a rich bronze paint and subtle gold highlights along the raised trim. Paired with a deep gold mat, the artwork has retained its fresh, luminous colors without any of the fading common to pastels of this era. It carries a quiet, nostalgic presence that instantly brings warmth and historical character to a room.
The reverse of this artwork holds a wonderful connection to early Canadian art commerce. It features an original, scalloped paper label from The T. Eaton Co. Limited (Canada) Picture Department, complete with its vintage stock inventory number: 115. Long before modern commercial art galleries existed in Toronto, Eaton’s Picture Department was a major cultural hub, introducing fine art to Ontario’s earliest private collectors.
On the face of the artwork, the piece is officially authenticated by the artist’s hand, stamped in the lower left corner with Charles Macdonald Manly’s distinctive red-ink “cherry” monogram cipher. This highly stylized mark cleanly integrates his initials (CMM) inside a fruit-like motif hanging from a curled stem, resting right above the mat line. Having both the verified red cipher on the front and the Eaton’s gallery label intact on the reverse makes this piece a rock-solid time capsule from the turn-of-the-century Toronto art scene.
This pastoral scene shows exactly why Charles Macdonald Manly is a pillar of Canadian art history. As a co-founder of the Toronto Art Students League in 1886, Manly pioneered outdoor plein-air sketching trips, traveling rural Waterloo County and the Conestogo River to capture domestic, working landscapes rather than just empty wilderness. His leadership in the community eventually earned him the presidency of the Ontario Society of Artists (OSA) in 1903 and an associateship with the Royal Canadian Academy (ARCA). Today, his works are preserved in the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Owning this piece means securing a beautifully preserved example from the very foundation of Canadian Impressionism.
Charles Macdonald Manly
Barnyard
Original artwork is in the public domain. Digital image and website content © 2026 Nash Gallery. All rights reserved.