David Milne (1882-1953)
Backgrounder
David Milne was one of Canada’s most outstanding artists of the early 20th century. He produced thousands of original and starkly beautiful oils, watercolours, prints and sketches, which were widely exhibited in Canada and internationally. A modernist who believed in the dominance of formal attributes such as form, line, and composition over subject matter, Milne was an “artist’s artist.” His unique and original style evolved from vibrant New York streetscapes, to superlative landscapes of rural New York and later Canada, to studied depictions of First World War battlefields, and finally to a synthesis of emotional content with formal, aesthetic concerns. Milne endowed everyday objects and landscapes with majesty through thoughtful composition and arrangement, simplification of line and colour and economy of means. Indeed, his works reflect his emotional connection to nature, austere lifestyle and total dedication to his art. Milne also produced many innovations such as colour drypoint, previously done only in black and white and his “dazzle spot.” This gifted intellectual also left voluminous writings that provide an invaluable record of his views on the transcendence of nature and his concept of aesthetic emotion, or “kick.”
Milne was born in Burgoyne, Ontario, near Lake Huron in 1882. He excelled academically and showed an early interest in botany and drawing. He taught school briefly before moving to New York City in 1903 where he studied at the Art Students League and helped run a commercial studio. In 1909, he exhibited his first works which combined watercolour techniques with the lessons of the post-impressionists. His brash avant-garde paintings were met with favourable review and he was soon recognized by the leading American watercolour societies. Finding it difficult to balance his need to make a living with his aspiration to become a serious painter, he moved to Boston Corners in the Berkshire Mountains of upstate New York. There he painted with a new confidence using symbolism and a limited palette of colours, focusing primarily on landscapes. In 1917, Milne enlisted with the Canadian Forces and later secured an appointment as a war artist in Europe. He produced over a hundred aesthetically-rigorous works, all watercolours that powerfully documented battlefields, ruined cities, and soldier camps.
After returning to Boston Corners, he embraced the philosophy of American transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman, who saw nature as a vehicle for spiritual transcendence. During the 1920s, Milne started keeping a painting diary in which he analyzed his use of various media and techniques. He also devoted himself to oil painting and invented colour drypoint, a printing technique for which he is still considered one of the masters.
Milne returned to Canada permanently in 1929. Desperate for funds, he began a search for buyers of his art that brought him in contact with Alice and Vincent Massey, who were art collectors and promoters. They organized several exhibitions and introduced Milne to leaders in the Canadian art world. In the 1930s, Milne further developed his unique approach to colour, used sparingly, often just for accent, with a reduced palette that included generous use of white and sometimes grey and black. He also experimented with the “dazzle spot,” which directed the viewers’ eye toward the essence of a painting.
In his later years, Milne’s art took a significant departure. In 1937, he began to paint in watercolours and to employ more vibrant colours. In the 1940s and early 1950s, he explored subject material that was whimsical and sometimes even religious. While some saw this a repudiation of his earlier modernism, others suggested that it was merely a culmination of a unique style that combined modernism with other influences. In 1948, Milne moved to Baptiste Lake near Bancroft and travelled throughout Algonquin Park painting the Canadian landscape.
David Milne produced thousands of paintings, drawings and prints. Since his death in 1953, there have been a number of major exhibitions on his work, both in Canada and internationally. His work is well represented at such institutions as the National Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario. His work, journals, letters, unpublished autobiography and other writings constitute a rich source for the study of Canadian art history.
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