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humanities 425 pointing out how issues like farm productivity and rural poverty shaped the life of the habitant portrayed by Krieghoff, offers an engaging discussion of the different breeds of horses seen in his canvases. There are, of course, questions that can be asked about Krieghoff's work: questions concerning his representation of French-Canadian and aboriginal people, questions about whose version of contemporary life he was chronicling and why, and questions about his overall significance in the canon of Canadian Art History. François-Marc Gagnon's essay,`Perceiving the Other: French-Canadian and Indian Iconography in the Work of Cornelius Krieghoff,' offers a lively and informed discussion of these issues and others. Gagnon's essay deals at length with the Dutchborn Krieghoff's construction of `the Other,' a topic which he introduces by using the writings of the French-Canadian art historian Gérard Morisset to interrogate the enthusiastic response to Krieghoff's work by EnglishCanadian writers such as Newton MacTavish (Morisset was especially aggrieved by their disregard B or possibly ignorance Bof the important roles played by earlier French-speaking artists in Quebec). Of the paintings themselves, Gagnon observes that `we French-Canadians, and Morisset in particular, fail to recognize ourselves in Krieghoff's pictures,' and the reader surmises that if asked, aboriginal people might say much the same thing. This book is sure to prompt renewed interest in the work of Cornelius Krieghoff. At the same time, it makes a persuasive case for further interdisciplinary research and scholarship in nineteenth-century Canadian art history- not only have the authors provided a wealth of information, much of it new, but they have offered a critical reading of an artist whose contribution to the development of art in Canada was considerable. Least understood? Not any more! (CAROLYN MACHARDY) M. Owen Lee. Wagner: The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art University of Toronto Press. x, 102. $25.00, $12.95 This short book contains the three lectures given by Father Lee at Trinity College, University of Toronto, in 1998. Those familiar with Lee's enjoyable if occasionally pompous contributions to the CBC Metropolitan Opera broadcasts will find much to admire as well as to criticize in this slim volume. Lee raises an interesting question: `Can a terrible man produce art that is good, true and beautiful?' Before he answers this question he must first show how terrible Wagner was, and as one who believes in original sin the good Father has little difficulty, even if he has to present as fact some very questionable conjectures. For example, Wagner never made any denial of 426 letters in canada 1999 his liaisons with several women, with one exception B he categorically denied that he ever had an affair with Mathilde Wesendonck, but Lee accepts, without question or evidence, that she was his mistress. This helps support the `terrible' part of his thesis. If this assumption of guilt were not enough his bad-mouthing of Wagner is excessive, even if necessary to build his thesis. By calling Wagner `the manic little man with the outsized head,' `a monstrously flawed man, given to venting his spleen indiscriminately in all directions,' `a tormented man,' `a self-absorbed artist who lied, cheated, and betrayed friend and foe alike,' and numerous other negatives, including some that are well deserved B Wagner's incessant anti-Jewish prose rantings B Lee then tries to balance these negatives by showing that Wagner's creativity was in part due to these very human negative qualities. Indeed, `because of his wounding this hateful man saw deeper into human depths, the good and the evil there, than any other composer ever had.' It is true that Wagner saw the good and the evil in human nature, and his queries into the human condition are reflected in his musical works. Whether this is related to being a `hateful man' is a dubious assertion. Yet, curiously enough, Lee tends to undermine his thesis by a remarkably glib and totally inaccurate statement: `most of the ideas that inspired his creations he discarded once the creation was done.' How incorrect this is may be illustrated by Wagner's resumption of the third act of Siegfried. Wagner...

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