HALIFAX HARBOUR

HALIFAX HARBOUR 1918

Harold Gilman (1876 – 1919)

Details

Dimension
40.5 X 52 CM
Media
PEN AND INK ON PAPER
Accession number
P2740

Summary

Gilman made a number of studies of Halifax Harbour and its shipping. Louis Fergusson described how Gilman was to "paint an enormous canvas to commemorate the scene of the great explosion" [1] when a French munitions boat had blown up in the harbour with a cargo of 2300 tons of pictic acid, 10 tons of guncotton and 200 tons of TNT, killing hundreds outright and devastating the district of Richmond and damaging the Halifax waterfront.

 

[1] Wyndham Lewis & Louis F Fergusson, Harold Gilman  An Appeciation, London: Chatto & Windus,1919

Glossary

  • Canvas

    A piece of cloth woven from flax, hemp or cotton fibres. The word has generally come to refer to any piece of firm, loosely woven fabric used to paint on. Its surface is typically prepared for painting by priming with a ground.