Homer Watson: Travels
Travels in Canada and the United States
After his travels in Toronto as a youth, Homer travelled to New York for a time to sketch in the Adirondack Mountains and along the Susquehanna River. At this time, it’s believed he was inspired by the works of George Inness and the Hudson River Group. He returned to his home of Doon in 1877.[1]
By 1879 Homer was also a member of the Grand River Canoeing Club, where he acted as the “vice commodore”. He would camp with his fellow members in various places around the Waterloo region, including Chieftswood – the home of Mohawk poet Pauline Johnson. During this excursion Homer and his group slept in hammocks and were given a fright by one of the Johnson family’s dogs jumping over them as they were falling asleep:
They were invited to Chieftswood, where they had music (Homer played the piano until he lost his hearing) after which refreshments were served. Pauline and her sister were children skipping about the place.
They swung their sleeping hammocks in a grove near Chieftswood that night, and as they were dosing off into slumberland, the cook shouted, “Get up! The Devil’s shadow is in the camp.” One of the large hounds of the Johnson’s had leaped across some of the hammocks.[2]
Johnson’s biographer and business manager, Walter McRaye, also wrote to Homer in 1930 regarding this particular trip: “Dear Mr. Watson- A thousand thanks for your gracious act- I remember hearing Pauline speak of that memorable canoe trip—If I mistake not our old friend “Daddy” Forsythe of old Berlin was along?”[3]
This same canoe voyage is believed to have made a stop at the Spiritualist settlement of Lily Dale before or perhaps on the return home after arriving at Chippewa, Michigan.[4] Homer would make more trips to Lily Dale over the course of his life, where he attended seances and furthered his involvement with the Spiritualist faith.
In his later years, Homer would travel out west to the Rocky Mountains and British Columbia, where he stayed with relatives of David Forsyth. In 1926 he wrote to his niece Myrtle Bean about the experience: “The mountains hereabouts are grand and beautiful beyond description. I will not attempt to describe them. I remember what Roxa said when she came back it was go and see them and here I am.”[5]
This trip appears to have been cross-country and made stops in the United States, just as his canoe club’s trips had done before. Several postcards addressed to his sister Phoebe and his daughter Mary during this time feature images and descriptions of Mt. Clemens, Michigan, Yellowstone National Park in Montana, Waterton Park and Calgary Alberta, and Winnipeg Manitoba.[6] Another letter indicates a stop in Camp Chesterfield, Indiana, a Spiritualist settlement similar to Lily Dale.
Homer Watson, Untitled (Tall Cliffs). c.1875, Oil on Board. HWHG Permanent Collection.
A Scottish Inn Homer and Roxa visited while in Europe. This building was likely nonoperational by 1872 when the original owner, “Muckle” Kate Ferguson, passed away. [18]
Travels in Europe
Homer and his wife Roxa made their first trip to Europe in the summer of 1887[7] where they stayed in Maidenhead, England and Pittenweem, Scotland until returning home in 1890.[8] While in the European art world, Homer made several connections with artists such as James Kerr-Lawson, E.J. Gregory, and Sir George Clausen.[9]
Homer struggled in England with his art at first and besides time with friends and studying the old masters, “the old world did not teach him many things that were useful in the new.”[10] He felt disconnected from the English landscapes and had to learn the “distancing of tourism” and “acquire a more remote and calculating selection process.”[11] He furthermore described such landscapes as “too perfect”[12], where the smooth roads weren’t as exciting as the Canadian roads in the process of being built.[13]
However, success would eventually come, with his work exhibited at the Goupil Gallery, the Glasgow Institute, and the New Gallery Bristol Exhibition.[14] The Watsons also apparently enjoyed Scotland much more than England, with Roxa writing that to her sister-in-law Phoebe that “they are much more contented”[15] and “the country here [in Scotland] is more like Canada than it is in England.”[16] Roxa also referred to London as “dingy”.[17]
An example of Homer Watson’s painting style in the early 1900s.
It was while in Europe that Homer began to experiment with etching, which he was encouraged to do by Clausen. He completed seven etchings while in England based on old sketches, as well as receiving special permission to visit Windsor Castle and make one based on his original oil painting The Pioneer Mill.[19] However, his etching work did not sell well in Canada, and it is noted that art dealer John Payne’s poor marketing job, high import fees, and general lack of Canadian interest in etchings were contributing factors.[20]
After this initial three-year trip, Homer would return to Europe several more times where he exhibited The Floodgate at the Glasgow Institute. His final time is believed to have been in 1912. [21] This period is thought to have been the peak of his popularity in both Europe and Canada, and when his works began to take on a more distinct style.[22] For example, it is described by art critic and friend of the Watsons Ross Hamilton to display “a broadening of the brushstrokes”[23] and “freedom in the artist’s expression”[24]. Despite his success overseas, ultimately Homer loved the landscapes of Doon the most.
Having seen the world of the cosmopolitan, and the art of the old lands, the scenes of his boyhood beckoned to him. There was an irresistible pull at the heartstrings of both Watson and his wife, who were both reared around rural hearths in the pastoral scenes of Canada. They had a deep and abiding love for their homeland.[25]
[1] Muriel Miller, Homer Watson the Man of Doon 2nd ed. (Toronto: Summerhill Press, 1988), 32-33.
[2] Frank Page, Homer Watson Artist and Man (Kitchener: Commercial Printing Company, 1939), 9
[3] Walter McRaye, “Letter from Walter McRaye to Homer Watson 1930”, Homer Watson fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives
[4] Gerald Noonan, Refining the Real Canada: Homer Watson’s Spiritual Landscape: A Biography (Waterloo: MLR Editions Canada, 1997), 201-204
[5] Homer Watson, [Letter from Homer Watson to Myrtle Bean, 1926], HWHG Archives
[6] These postcards are a part of the Homer Ransford Watson fonds, Queens University Archives, Kingston
[7] Miller, Homer Watson the Man of Doon 2nd ed., 43
[8] Page, Homer Watson Artist and Man, 16.
[9] Ibid., 15-16
[10] Ibid.
[11] Noonan, Refining the Real Canada: Homer Watson’s Spiritual Landscape: A Biography, 183
[12] Page, Homer Watson Artist and Man, 16
[13] Ibid.
[14] Miller, Homer Watson the Man of Doon 2nd ed., 77
[15] Roxa Watson (Bechtel), [Letter from Roxa Watson to Phoebe Watson 30 July 1888] Homer Watson fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa, in Page, Homer Watson Artist and Man, 136
[16] Ibid.
[17] Roxa Watson (Bechtel), [Letter from Roxa Watson to Phoebe Watson 5 May 1889] Homer Watson fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa, in Page, Homer Watson Artist and Man, 150
[18] Archie McKerracher, Perthshire in History and Legend (Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers, 1988), 111-114
[19] Noonan, Refining the Real Canada: Homer Watson’s Spiritual Landscape: A Biography, 204
[20] Rosemarie Tovell, “Homer Watson’s The Pioneer Mill: The Making and Marketing of a Print in the Canadian Etching Revival.” Journal of Canadian Art History 31, no.2 (2011): 12–36, referenced in Brian Foss, “Homer Watson and the Pioneer Mill.” Journal of Canadian Art History 33, no.1 (2012): 55-56
[21] Miller, Homer Watson the Man of Doon 2nd ed., 78.
[22] Ibid., 79-80
[23] Ross Hamilton, foreword to Homer Watson Artist and Man, (Kitchener: Commercial Printing Company, 1939), vi
[24] Ibid.
[25] Page, Homer Watson Artist and Man, 17