Artwork
Painting in Canada between 1906 and 1919, Legh Mulhall Kilpin was a prolific and accomplished artist and art instructor.
The body of Kilpin's work, which extends from etchings to oil portraits, watercolour landscapes, and decorative designs in the Art Nouveau style, demonstrates his ability to work freely in many genres and is a reflection of the eclecticism of late 19th century popular tastes in art.
Decorative works
The production of decorative and design works by Kilpin reflects Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau influences in his work and training.
With the establishment of the Arts and Crafts movement in Great Britain in the 1880s, a number of artists executed designs and decorative work for industry and for private individuals. Artists were encouraged to experiment in design and receive training in the crafts after the first Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851, and many artists sought to elevate the status of craft to the level of fine art. The National Arts Training School system, where Kilpin was educated, included training in lettering and illumination and art students might find employment working for publishers and newspapers.
Kilpin executed various designs, probably around the turn of the century, although their intended purpose is not known. An untitled drawing of acorns, The Brunette, and three untitled illuminations provide examples of this type of work.
Landscapes
After moving to Canada, Kilpin was inspired by the Canadian arts scene and Canadian landscape to experiment with new types of painting. Especially after he joined the Montreal Arts Club in 1912, we can detect changes in Kilpin’s art, particularly in paintings and prints of the Canadian landscape.
The traditionally-trained, British artist was inspired to paint the landscape of his new home using a more expressive, impressionist approach. Works such as The Harbour, Back Road to Shawbridge Station, and Clark’s Creek demonstrate Kilpin’s experimentation with new landscape techniques. These and other landscapes can be found in the Museum’s Collection database.
Compared to earlier works, such as The Valley of the Derwent at Haddon we can see an evolution in Kilpin’s painting. Even though Kilpin never abandoned his well-honed use of techniques he had learned and practiced in England, the landscapes of the last decade of his life are the most evocative and personal of his career.
Portraits
Portraits of family and those commissioned by Canada’s industrial elite demonstrate Kilpin’s interest and aptitude in the field of portraiture.
It is not surprising that a considerable portion of Kilpin's surviving work is in the form of single portraits. Artists had a better chance of earning a comfortable income painting commissioned portraits than creating other types of artwork. Portraits celebrated the sitter's social or political status, marriage and family ties, and at times memorialized the sitter after death. Furthermore, portraiture called on artists' skills in painting and drawing, and it allowed them to delve into the personality of their models. Portraiture also tested the artist's ability to capture a likeness, an important requisite of a good portrait.
Kilpin's clientele was drawn mostly from a small circle of friends and acquaintances in the professional and artistic worlds, and from members of his immediate family. In addition to his immediate family, a large number of Kilpin's sitters were from the professional classes.
Early on Kilpin had grasped the potential of the photograph in the process of portrait painting. The use of photographs was a time-saving tool for his sitters. More artistically interesting, though, was that the camera could, at times, capture a fleeting, uninhibited moment and that Kilpin could use.
During his early years in Canada Kilpin likely contemplated portraiture as the main branch of his artistic career as an artist. From 1907 to 1911 Kilpin exhibited an inordinately large number of portraits at the exhibitions sponsored by the Art Association of Montreal. When Kilpin gained full-time employment as an art schoolteacher, he was no longer dependent on portrait commissions for his livelihood. So, by 1912 much of Kilpin's artistic energy was devoted to the painting of landscapes. There can be little doubt, though, that for Kilpin portraiture presented an exacting artistic challenge as he strove to create a lasting record of his sitters' lives and character. For both artist and sitter the legacy remains.
Prints and etchings
Kilpin's interest in printmaking seems to have occurred after his arrival in Canada. He made many etchings and monotypes between the years 1915 and 1919.
His interest in etching and monotype printing coincided with a print revival in Canada that first developed in Toronto, and was fostered and promoted by the Graphic Arts Club. Around 1914 members of the Montreal Arts Club began to produce their own etchings. As a member of the ACM since 1912, Legh Kilpin had the opportunity to take up etching through his association with fellow artists like Herbert Raine, who was an early and devoted etcher.
Kilpin practiced intaglio printmaking, where lines are cut by hand or etched by acid. Ink is then applied to the plate, and then wiped, leaving ink in the incised lines. For printing, a sheet of dampened paper is applied onto the plate and run through a press: the pressure of the press transfers the ink in the incised lines onto the paper.
Kilpin produced etchings of landscapes, cityscapes, nautical scenes and occasionally genre scenes, for the most part, executed in two distinct styles. Some are reminiscent of conservative prints imported from Britain and France, while others were executed in a more spontaneous, sketchy style that often featured contemporary Canadian scenes.
However, it was in the medium of the monotype that Kilpin really began to explore new territory by forcing himself to let go of his technically precise style and enjoy the expressive qualities of the materials themselves. The monotype is the simplest form of printmaking in which an image is drawn or painted on a metal or glass surface and then transferred onto paper through the use of a press. Usually only one or two prints can be pulled, and will be quite different. It appears to have been difficult for Kilpin to relax his rigid and precise style, however, the monotype process would have forced him to give up control of the final outcome of a piece. Perhaps it was this element of chance that drew Kilpin to experiment with the monotype.
Symbolist pieces
Kilpin’s interest in Symbolist painting reveals an awareness of art movements beyond Canada, and the works are striking for their unique subject matter in the Canadian context of the time.
During the last two decades of the 19th century, many European artists embraced Symbolism. Symbolist painters were interested in looking beyond the “real” world to depict the fantastic, the visionary and the imaginary. The inspirations for these painters included dreams, literature, and spiritual movements that used séances and crystals to communicate with the world beyond.
Some of Kilpin’s most interesting and unique pieces are those that deal with Symbolist subject matter; they are relatively unique to Canadian art of the period. Examples include The Grecian Woman, Gate of the Infinite, and the Crystal Gazer. Click on thumbnail image below to view.
Cut from the cottage
After moving to Montreal, the Kilpin family purchased a summer cottage at Shawbridge Quebec. Kilpin painted several large murals directly onto its walls. When his descendants sold the cottage in 1932, they decided to cut panels from the walls. The panels were later donated to the Langley Centennial Museum’s collection.