Group of Seven painting 'comes home' to Cape Breton in recognition of miners' struggle

Tom Ayers · CBC News

· Posted: May 08, 2025 2:09 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

A 100-year-old coating by Group of Seven creator Lawren Harris is connected accumulation present successful Sydney, N.S., conscionable successful clip for the day of the lawsuit that led to the sidesplitting of ember miner William Davis.

The celebrated coating is called Miners' Houses, Glace Bay and the exhibition's authoritative opening was May 2 astatine the Eltuek Arts Centre.

Melissa Kearney, the centre's creator director, told Information Morning Cape Breton she was awestruck erstwhile she archetypal saw the portion astatine the Art Gallery of Ontario successful 2016.

"[My] archetypal instinct was everybody backmost location has to spot this painting, due to the fact that it truthful rather virtually stops you successful your tracks successful its value of this spot and our past and the images, the symbolism, the icon of institution houses and it being connected the edge. Everything from the lighting to the homes themselves conscionable screams Cape Breton Island."

Miners' Houses, Glace Bay is connected indebtedness from the Art Gallery of Ontario until June 28. It's got its ain accumulation abstraction successful the centre, which is simply a refurbished convent that dates backmost to 1885.

Kearney said the coating represents Harris's last depiction of an municipality concern country earlier his displacement to bluish landscapes.

Harris was successful Cape Breton reporting for the Toronto Star paper during a lengthy ember miners' onslaught successful 1925 and was inspired to commencement the coating here, earlier returning to his workplace successful Toronto to decorativeness it.

"In his career, [Harris] felt truthful bent and moved by what helium saw that I deliberation that was a breaking constituent for him arsenic an creator and truthful [it is an] highly important coating for Canadians and particularly for us," Kearney said.

After Harris near but earlier the onslaught was over, miner William Davis was changeable and killed by mining institution police. The lawsuit is recognized crossed the state each June 11 arsenic William Davis Miners' Memorial Day.

Kearney, whose grandfathers and great-grandfathers were miners, said the coating evokes a fig of themes. She said the houses can, astatine archetypal glance, look to beryllium gravestones connected the borderline of a cliff, a show that's not uncommon connected Cape Breton Island.

She said it's besides reminiscent of the aged ember mining life. The coating is devoid of people, but Kearney said she assumes they are each working, either successful the homes oregon successful the mines underground.

Kevin Edwards, a subordinate of the Men of the Deeps ember miners' choir and a erstwhile miner himself, saw the coating for the archetypal clip astatine the opening and said helium was amazed.

He said 1 of the choir's goals is to support the past and civilization of those who worked underground — the life-and-death struggles of the concern mode of beingness — and the coating serves a akin purpose.

"For me, it has a precise eerie, subtle consciousness to it, knowing the inheritance and the past of it. It means truthful overmuch not lone to the ember mining industry, but to the labour question and fundamentally quality rights," Edwards said.

"That azygous lawsuit backmost successful 1925, Bill Davis and others were injured oregon killed and maimed … and it meant truthful much, but they had the courageousness and the spot to spell and to basal up against the constabulary and the hired goons … and it's very, precise meaningful."

Lachlan MacKinnon, a past prof astatine Cape Breton University, said the coating helps archer the communicative of the ember miners' onslaught and Davis's decease and the interaction connected the labour movement.

"That was a truly important infinitesimal successful our island's history, due to the fact that of the mode that section workers, section ember miners and their families came unneurotic to situation the ways that they were being exploited by their leader astatine the time," helium said.

The coating whitethorn look bleak to some, but it portrays overmuch much and inactive resonates, adjacent though the ember mines closed successful 2001, MacKinnon said.

"In a sense, you spot the benignant of the starkness of the moment. It evokes that consciousness of poverty, of exploitation, of benignant of surviving connected the borderline successful a way, which surely the ember communities successful the 1920s were," helium said.

"On the different hand, I deliberation that there's thing that evokes solidarity. The images of the houses, their similarities 1 with 1 another, the mode that they're crowded unneurotic and benignant of the vibrant colours, I deliberation evokes benignant of a consciousness of togetherness, of drafting adjacent and benignant of resiliency, which I deliberation resounds rather good successful a spot similar Cape Breton, wherever those values and those ideas continued agelong aft 1925 and so aft the closure of the mines altogether."