In 1954, Arthur Lismer of the Group of Seven, wrote, “Through Cornelius Krieghoff, the habitant comes to life, the landscape takes on colour, the winter is a form of national expression freed of its terrors, and painting becomes one of the cultural aspirations of the whole world. Krieghoff was a pioneer in all this.” Forty years later, John Bentley Mays, in a Globe and Mail review of a Krieghoff exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum, queried, “But was Krieghoff merely the mass producing slickly commercial painter some of us have long believed him to be?” and answered, “I can only say: not a chance.”

Krieghoff, the first son of a German carpet weaver and Flemish mother, was born in Amsterdam on June 19, 1815, the day following Wellington’s defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. He showed an early aptitude for drawing and music and, at 18, toured Europe with his sketch book and mandolin, earning his way by giving drawing and music lessons. Of all the great paintings, he liked the realistic works of the Flemish painters, and was particularly influenced by Bruegel the Elder and Jan Steen.
 

There was such an insatiable demand for Krieghoff’s paintings in the late 1850s and early 1860s that by age 47 he was exhausted and his ambition seems to have dried up. This undated photograph of Krieghoff was probably taken one or two years before his death at age 57 in 1872. [Photo, courtesy NAC/C-51822]

In 1836, Cornelius emigrated to the United States and, in New York, he met 15-year-old Emilie Gauthier and her father Louis, of Boucherville, Québec. Krieghoff promised to keep in touch with Emilie, and did so despite joining the American Army to take part in the war with the Seminole Indians of Florida. He visited her in Vermont during his leaves and, in 1839 when she was 18, he married her. At the time, Krieghoff was an officer assigned to sketch scenes that would serve as “eyewitness” paintings of the Seminole conflict, but, on learning that she was pregnant, he deserted the army and moved to Montréal.

He tried to make a living painting and giving drawing and music lessons but there was little interest in his art. Daguerreotypes, invented 15 years earlier, and paintings imported from Europe were all the rage among the moneyed people of Montreal. After the death of their 13-month-old son, the Krieghoffs moved, first to Buffalo, then to Toronto, where younger brother Ernst had settled, and finally to Rochester. There Krieghoff had a successful show, but, after another brief stay in Toronto, Emilie was homesick, and they eventually settled at Longueuil in late 1846 on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, opposite Montréal.

Krieghoff promptly made many friends among the habitants. Visiting their taverns, drinking their whiskey blanc and taking part in their parties, he decided to “paint what he saw around him and bear witness through his art to the folklore of his time.” His wife’s family were among the first to model for him for both indoor and outdoor scenes. Tavern friends also served as subjects; other scenes accurately depicted the lives of peasants as they went about their chores on their farms, drove their sleighs, or partied in a spirit of joie de vivre with family and friends.

As an avid hiker and collector of plant life, he not only painted the people living in nearby villages but also visited Caughnawaga and carefully sketched Iroquois everyday life there. When a picture pleased him, often for its humour, he would copy it a number of times. He made, for instance, some 30 versions of one particular painting which portrays him and his friends coming home from a party and dashing on a horse-drawn sleigh past a village gatekeeper without paying the toll.

Krieghoff’s paintings of peasants and poor Indians of Caughnawaga, however, still didn’t attract Montréal patrons and were sold for roughly $5 and $10 each to engineers involved in building a railroad and to British Army officers stationed on île Ste-Hélèn or at Montréal. He was encouraged when Lord Elgin, Canada’s Governor General, visited his studio in 1847 and became charmed by his paintings. Krieghoff also took part in a Toronto show that included the works of Paul Kane and was commissioned to paint some “documentary portraits” of wealthy fur merchants wrapped in fur robes and sitting in sleighs. It was, however, sometimes necessary to become a sign or house painter to support his wife and newborn daughter, Emily.

In 1851 his fortunes changed when he met John Budden, a dealer at Québec City who persuaded him to move to his home there in 1853 where Krieghoff was introduced to a number of prominent families and British officers stationed at the Citadel. They bought his habitant paintings as gifts to send home to England. French Canadians, on the other hand, could not understand why he insisted on painting vulgar subjects that seemed to ridicule their way of living. Hughes de Jouvancourt wrote in a Krieghoff biography that “the painter did not have a single customer among his wife’s fellow-countrymen.”

With Budden managing his affairs, Krieghoff and his wife were able to visit Europe in 1854, spending most of the year there. On their return, however, their shaky marriage broke up, with Emilie eventually moving to Denver, Colorado, where she sold a number of the paintings he had given her. Krieghoff remained in Québec City painting portraits of prominent friends before returning to his favourite subject matter – landscapes and the peasant life. He trekked through the forests with his Indian guide and sought out old homesteads and picturesque farms as subjects for some of his finest works. In 1856, he visited Niagara Falls, and although much of his work at this time continues to feature Québec countryside, including its tavern life, his canvasses also reflect the commerce and and industry activities germane to a bustling Québec prior to Confederation.
 

Although many of Krieghoff’s subject matters depict rollicking habitants and their jolly life, he was also fond of painting autumn scenes revealing, in particular, Indian encampments. This 1855 painting at the fruitful peak of his career is titled Indian Council. It hangs in the Samuel E. Weir Museum, Queenston, Ontario. [Photo, courtesy The Weir Foundation, Queenston Ontario]

Budden expanded the sale of Krieghoff’s work into the United States and England, and the now successful painter enjoyed being a part of Québec society. He was active in the amateur dramatic club, played the violin in the philharmonic orchestra, and gave painting lessons at a local school. In 1862, the same year his daughter Emily, at 18, married a British Army officer at Québec City, Budden organized a successful auction of 100 of Krieghoff’s paintings and this enabled the artist to make a second trip to Europe.
 

Krieghoff’s creative peak flourishes between 1856-1862. His canvasses during this mature period of his career no longer dramatize exclusively the simple yet jolly life of the habitants. Rather, his rich-in-detail paintings, during this period, concentrate more on the industry and commerce of the day than on the frivolity and the incidental. His thoughtful oil on canvas, Sillery Cove, Québec, 1859, rich in detail, serenely captures the timber trade of the St. Lawrence River prior to Canada’s Confederation in 1867. [Illustration, courtesy Collection of K. R. Thomson]

He returned later that year, but, at 48, his joie de vive past had caught up to him and he spent much of his time repeating old scenes rather than creating new works. By 1868, his deteriorating health prompted him to move to Chicago and live with his daughter and her husband. Krieghoff returned to Québec City just once more, in 1871, and painted some new works including The Blacksmith Shop chosen by Canada Post in 1972 as a stamp to mark the 100th anniversary of his death from a heart attack at his daughter’s home in Chicago while writing a letter to his mentor and dear friend, John Budden.

Mel James