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F or the canadian artist george reid (1860–1947), fostering a national spirit through his art was of utmost importance. Reid’s objective was to produce work that was distinctly Canadian with its own well-defined characteristics and expression of native sentiments.1 In turn, his images were intended to evoke an emotional response in his fellow citizens, who would see themselves in his work.At the same time, they played the much larger role of manifesting values and qualities of life deemed meaningful for the Canadian nation. Relating to contemporary literary, social, and political life, his paintings were innately understood by Canadians who could extend his narrative with their own memories of childhood. What was created, ultimately, was a shared vision of nationhood. The wellspring of Reid’s creative inspiration was his boyhood on an Ontario farm. His memories of family life, and rural living in general, informed his personal narrative and significantly influenced his vision of the Canadian nation. Reid’s story of his development as an artist can be understood in terms of Jerome Bruner’s theory of the social construction of reality through narration.2 Bruner believes that people“make sense”of their lives by organizing all images, sounds, and other sensory experiences into“stories” that link who they are in the present to their past and future actions. For Bruner, stories are not just situation-specific events that have meaning only for the people who experience them; rather, they are part of the process of “narrative accrual,”3 which is the telling and retelling of analogous stories by many people. The result is a narrative that encapsulates tradition, history, and culture. The main source of information on Reid’s childhood is his official biography, which he commissioned in January 1940 at the age of eighty.4 The writer was well-respected biographer Muriel Miller, who had considerable input from Reid and ready access to his personal papers during the two years she devoted to researching and writing the book. GEORGE REID’S PAINTINGS AS NARRATIVES OF A CHILD NATION LOREN LERNER 325 The text reads like an autobiography, with recollections and anecdotes that closely interweave Reid’s memories of people and events with his art practice. Reid relayed his life to Miller in a narrative account that, according to Bruner, sees Reid as“a Self acting more or less purposefully in a social world.”5 Due to the scarcity of paper during World War II, G.A. Reid, Canadian Artist was not published until 1946. It was revised in 1987 to include a catalogue of Reid’s paintings, at which time it was also given a new title, George Reid: A Biography. The revised edition begins with a section titled“From Farm to Easel”that describes Reid’s early childhood on his parents’ farm in Wingham County, Ontario. Reid’s father in particular encouraged his son’s education at school, at church, and at home. In fact, Adam Reid was instrumental in organizing a tour by a travelling library, which was housed in different area schools and farmhouses for a few months at a time. It was from the paintings reproduced in these books and magazines that young George learned about art, and at the age of eleven he firmly announced his intention of becoming an artist. While Reid’s father believed in the intellectual development of the child through reading, he considered art an impractical and frivolous activity. He refused to acknowledge George’s pictures and the prizes he won at local fairs for his drawings of animals. He believed, besides submitting to a divine will, that the proper life for a child was the physical activity of working a farm.6 As Reid explained to Miller, Adam insisted that his son become a farmer, a“nation builder”who would contribute to the foundation of Canada by cultivating its land. He had immigrated to Canada from Ireland at the age of twenty-four, and after working on a farm near Weston, Ontario, he staked his claim on an upland tract near Wingham, cleared the land for farming, and built a log house he called“The Homestead.”It was very clear that Reid and his brothers were expected to follow his example and build their own homesteads. Nonetheless, when Reid finished school in the spring of 1875 he decided it was time to go to Toronto to study art. Fate intervened when his brother Tom, who was doing the heavy work on the farm, crushed...

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