Posted at 10:00 a.m.
This is the first large-scale exhibition devoted to the photographer, which is accompanied by the publication of a book including his biography and 170 reproductions faithful to period prints.
“This exhibition is at the heart of our centennial celebrations of the museum,” said Suzanne Sauvage, President and CEO of the McCord Museum.
[L’exposition] recognizes the work of one of Canada’s most important landscape photographers.
Suzanne Sauvage
The name of Alexander Henderson remains a reference for historians of photography, but a biographical reminder is necessary for the uninitiated. Born in Scotland in 1831, descended from the small landed bourgeoisie, Henderson emigrated to Montreal in 1855, where he lived until the end of his life.
The success of his first prints led him to abandon his job as a commission agent to open a photography studio, then to travel the wide open spaces of Quebec and Western Canada to capture the charm of their natural landscapes. In addition to a few rare original prints, the exhibition presents more than 250 reproductions of Alexander Henderson’s photographs, mainly from the fund accumulated by the McCord Museum over the years.
Canadian nature in pictures
Except for the few portraits made by the artist, the majority of the works presented show natural landscapes. During his many travels, Henderson visited major resorts in Quebec and Ontario, most often traveling by bark canoe along the White, Red, Lièvre and other rivers. famous water from the east of the country.
-
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
While the original prints are all small, some photos have been enlarged and projected onto large screens. Main photo: Causapscal River at the Intercolonial Railway bridge, Quebec, circa 1875.
-
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
Maritime landscapes are an integral part of Alexander Henderson’s photographic work.
-
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
Vintage prints use albumen printing, the first commercially exploitable process for converting negatives that appeared in the middle of the 19th century.e century.
-
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
Henderson’s work also recounts the wintery Montreal of yesteryear: here the cutting of the ice on the St. Lawrence River…
-
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
…there, snow removal from a road on Lower Lachine Road (today LaSalle Boulevard).
-
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
Colonial imagery is ubiquitous in Henderson’s photos of Indigenous peoples.
-
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
The exhibition ends with a large format projection of 30 photos by Alexander Henderson in slight movement against a musical background.
1/7
Henderson is primarily a winter photographer, transporting his gear through harsh conditions to capture winter vistas of startling depth. Visitors will be able to admire the freezing Montmorency and Niagara Falls, the ice jams on the St. Lawrence River or Mount Royal covered in frost. A few photos also allow you to admire the urban center of Montreal and the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway, for which Henderson worked at the end of his career.
A photographer with a recognized artistic flair
The photographs are marked by a great mastery of framing, composition and light, Henderson going so far as to add clouds at the time of printing to compensate for the pallor of the skies caused by the photographic equipment of the time.
There is also a lot of talk about the artistic dimension of his work, explains Hélène Samson, curator of the exhibition.
It’s not just someone who takes photographs to document their memories and travels. There is in him a desire to make works of art.
Helene Samson
Alexander Henderson notably participated in the creation of the Art Association of Montreal, which was to be succeeded by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, contributing from the 1860s to the artistic recognition of photography.
His style sometimes borrows from romanticism, expressing a fascination with the beauties of nature, sometimes from the picturesque, restoring the impression of scenes taken from life. He thus photographed fishing communities and many Aboriginal peoples, expressing an “exotic” interest in the latter, which reflects the colonial gaze of Canadian society at the time on communities perceived as doomed to disappear.
At the end of the exhibition, photographs by Henderson are projected in large format. The gentle conclusion of an exhibition marked by discovery. “We hope that Quebecers will have a new photographer in their world,” summarizes Hélène Samson. We bet that with this exhibition, the work of Alexander Henderson and the landscapes of Quebec will be recognized at their fair value.
The exhibition Alexander Henderson — Art and Nature is presented at the McCord Museum from June 10, 2022 to April 16, 2023.
The McCord Museum will become McCord Stewart
The closure of the Stewart Museum in February 2021 and the repatriation of the collections to the McCord Museum will result in a name change to this museum on Sherbrooke Street. From August 21, the McCord Museum will bear the double name: McCord Stewart. The Stewart collection includes 27,000 objects, archival documents and rare books related to the European presence in New France and North America.