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Lyttleton's
View of Halifax: Microscopic Cosmos
by Alexandra E. Carter
Résumé en français
Pages 1 | 2 |
3 | 4
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Introduction
Captain W. W. L. Lyttleton painted the watercolour Halifax Harbour
Seen from McNab' s Island, now in the Canadiana Department of
the Royal Ontario Museum, sometime after 1840 when he was assigned
to a tour of duty in that city (fig. 1). (1) Among the wealth of works
treating the same subject during the years since the settlement was
founded in 1749, this picture is exceptional because of the
remarkable breadth of vista it describes, as well as the stylistic
qualities it exhibits.
Monographs on individual subjects in Canadian art are all too rare,
but surely Lyttleton's panoramic view deserves such treatment. In
this article I shall briefly de scribe the physical setting,
Halifax Harbour, as illustrated in works from the mid-eighteenth
century onward, in relation to this work of Captain Lyttleton.
Lyttleton was unusual among various garrison artists who passed
through Halifax in the extent of his connections with the area and
the interpretative power which he developed from the standard
military training in topographical painting. The large view of
Halifax in the Royal Ontario Museum is the masterpiece among the
exceedingly small number of his works known today. Finally, there
are interesting possibilities in the relationships between this
water-colour of unusually large dimensions and three contemporary
phenomena : the uses made of the camera obscura, the popularity of
the panorama, and the development of English landscape painting in
water-colour.
Lyttleton 's View of Halifax
Lyttleton views the city from a distant and elevated vantage point
on the northern tip of McNab's Island at the mouth of the harbour,
approximately three miles from the Halifax shore. The city serves as
the focal point for a panoramic sweep which includes the entire land
formation encompassing the harbour entrance from Sandwich Point in
the south-west, midway on the left side of the picture, to the
land adjacent McNab's Island (originally Cornwallis Island) in the
north-east, on the right-hand side (fig. 2). Discernible on the
horizon are four important landmarks which are carefully rendered :
the Martello towers commanding Halifax Harbour, each of which is
identified in an unknown hand (possibly Lyttleton's) below the picture, on the
mount. (2) Near the left edge is York Redoubt, which
still exists, and toward the right is the Duke of Clarence T over,
which was demolished years ago. The total distance between the two
towers is approximately three nautical miles and the angle of the
view, as nearly as one can determine, is 180 degrees.
The Northern portion of McNab's Island constitutes the foreground
(fig. 3). Included is the homestead of Lyttleton's brother-in-law,
Lieutenant A. L. Hugonin, with a notable Georgian house seen from the
back and side, enclosed by a well-painted wooden fence, various
out-buildings, and a pasture. (3)
The foreground forms a pyramidal mass with a variety of
compositional roles. The broad base provides immediately a sense
of stability and repose. The apex directs the eye of the viewer to
two focal points: the blunt point of the triangle formed by the
scrub-covered knoll, and immediately adjacent to it, the distant
city. The considerable distance between the two is suggested by
Lyttleton's effective use of alternating dark and light areas. The
origin of these shadows is somewhat obscure in the absence of
dense cloud formations, but the rhythm thus established is continued
by the play of light on the water and the distant shore. Basically,
the composition terminates abruptly at the horizontal barrier of
elevated land encircling the town, and this line, tangential to the
rounded formation in the foreground, further rivets the attention on
the microscopic cosmos.
The elongated shadows cast westward by the rotund sheep in the
foreground indicate that a summer sunrise, rather than a sunset,
is responsible for the variegated sky which fills the top half of
the picture. From the brilliant cobalt blue in the upper left
corner, the colour and intensity gradually diffuse, first into a neutral beige tone in the atmosphere where the oblique rays are most
concentrated at this time of day, and finally into an almost opaque
gold at the horizon on the right. Highlighted within this particular
chromatic scheme is the city. The sky is a transitional device
with a composite role: it serves as a two-dimensional band leading
the eye down a surface diagonal toward the focal points; it also
creates a specific spatial organization resulting from the inherent
"projecting-receding" characteristics of warm and cool
colours
Lyttleton in Halifax
Captain Lyttleton arrived in Halifax in October 1840 with the
detachments of the 64th Regiment, and changed his status from
visitor to adopted son by marrying the eldest daughter of one of the
oldest and "best" families. (4) Joanna McNab was the
descendant of "Governor" McNab, one of the original settlers who purchased the island from the brothers
of Edward
Cornwallis, the founder of Halifax. (5) The 1793 assessment lists
Peter McNab (Joanna McNab's grandfather) as a farmer, residing on
the island and owning two horses, twelve cows, and two hundred
sheep. The McNab land was purchased by Lyttleton and his
brother-in-law, Lieutenant Hugonin, whose house is included in
Lyttleton's View. (6) Lyttleton lived in Halifax or on the
island for seventeen years. (7) This could explain his choice of
location from which to render this view of Halifax.
Westcott Witchurch Lewis Lyttleton (1818-1879/86) (8) was following
the prescribed path of British military families when he entered
the Royal Military Academy and received the commission of Ensign in
1837. (9) There is little recorded information about his formative
years; he was born in Ceylon in 1818, the third child and eldest son
of Lieutenant William Thomas Lyttleton, then serving with the 73rd
Regiment. At some point the family moved to Scotland, then
migrated to Tasmania in 1825. In February 1835, he left for London
which he reached the following August. His military record appears
to have been properly uneventful; the course of his advancement is
indicated by the entry of his name in the army lists as Lieutenant
in 1839, and as Captain in 1845. There is no further mention of him
after 1848; however, his commission as Captain of the Royal Newfoundland Company in 1849 is in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia.
Harper records that Lyttleton served a second tour of duty in
Canada in 1849-1866. (10) He retired to McNab's Island and enjoyed a
position of considerable importance in the community. An active
member of St Paul's Anglican Church, he was church-warden for the
year 1867. (11) He served on the committee of the National School in
Halifax in 1868-1869; the minutes of the Nova Scotia Institute of Natural Science reports that Captain Lyttleton "had waited on
the Lieutenant Governor to be a patron," indicating he had been
chosen to present the petition of incorporation for the
organization; he served a five-year term as treasurer, 1862-1867.
(12)
Lyttleton took an active role in the Provincial Exhibition, 1853, as
subscriber, prize winner for sheep, and one of the judges of the
fine arts section. (13) A decade later, he was instrumental in organizing an
important art exhibition held at the Halifax armoury; several of his water-colours were included in the
show. (14)
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