Parallel Destinies:Homer Watson & Carl Ahrens
Dundas Museum & Archives, Dundas, Ontario June 20 - September 5, 2015
This exhibition showcased the works of two Canadian landscape artists, Homer Watson and Carl Ahrens. The term parallel, used in the title, is a double-entendre. The evolution of Watson and Ahrens is similar in some respects. Both artists were born in Ontario, self-taught, and were friends and members of the same artistic societies. Yet, their lives were separated, never meeting.
Watson rose to fame young, and had an exemplary life and career. However, the quality of Watson's work decreased and he died a poor man. Ahrens was sick most of his life, lived a Bohemian lifestyle, and struggled to make a living. But nonetheless, Ahrens completed some of his best works in the later part of his life.
Almost eighty years after their passing, we ask ourselves - who did the right thing as an artist?
Sandu Sindile - Former Curator, Dundas Museum & Archives
Untitled Autumn Scene
Watercolor on paper
16.5 x 12.5 cm
Signed c. 1934
Collection of rych mills
Photo by Deborah Downes
This painting originally belonged to Frank Page. Page was a journalist, publisher, poet, historian, biographer of Waterloo County (Ontario) painter, Homer Watson, and president of the Waterloo Historical Society. He was a friend to both Carl Ahrens and Homer Watson.
Untitled Landscape
Oil on plywood
40.5 x 35.5 cm
Signed 1935
Kitchener/Waterloo Art Gallery
Gift of Joan and Ross Murray 1985
Photo by Chris Keith
Figures in the Woods
Watercolor on paper
23 x 18 cm
Signed 1936
Collection of Fred and Deborah Downes
Photo by Deborah Downes
Carl Ahrens died in February 1936, so this is one of his last paintings. The final months of his life were spent of the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital, where he had no access to scenes like this.
The Inlet
Oil on canvas
58.5 x 81 cm
Signed c. 1910
Collection of rych mills
Photo by Sandu Sindile
This painting was exhibited in the Toronto Reference Library in October of 1911. It was at one time sold with the title Night Time and is referred to with that title in a 1928 article in Canadian Homes and Gardens. The Mercer exhibition catalog lists the original title, The Inlet.
The Day is Done
Oil on canvas
58.5 x 84 cm
Signed 1890
Collection of Sandu Sindile
Photo by Sandu Sindile
Leith Woods
Oil on canvas
35.5 x 25.5 cm
Signed c. 1913
Collection of Kim Bullock
Photo by Sandu Sindile
This painting would have been painted in the small village of Leith, Ontario, on the shores of Georgian Bay. The Ahrens family summered there in 1913 and 1914. The original title may be On Georgian Bay. That canvas was in a 1917 exhibition at the Roberts Art Gallery in Toronto.
Show More
Photographs from the exhibit
Event poster featuring work by Carl Ahrens and Homer Watson
In the main gallery of the Dundas Museum & Archives
Sandu Sindile (curator) welcoming everyone to Kim Bullock’s speech on Carl Ahrens
Kim Bullock speaks about her great-grandfather, Carl Ahrens.
Kim Bullock waiting to speak.
In the main gallery of the Dundas Museum & Archives (Mercers)
Show More