E.J. Hughes - A British Columbia Treasure

E.J. Hughes a Victoria born artist created iconic British Columbia seascapes and landscapes with a unique perspective, a narrow depth of field and stylized shapes. His style was unique and focused entirely on British Columbia.  

Hughes attended the VSDAA (The Vancouver School of Design and Applied Arts - later to morph into The Emily Carr University of Art and Design.)

He ran into Fred Varley, as he was instructing then, but it's unlikely that Hughes was his student as his style of art and his unsavoury lifestyle didn't appeal. 

During the second world war Hughes was employed as a war artists, capturing scenes of the troops.  He was away from his then bride Fern Smith.  The two kept in touch through letters. 

In 1937 and 1938 Hughes spent his summers working in BC's Commercial Gill netting industry.  In 1946 he started painting the scene from his Gill netting days.  Nov 26, 2004 "Fishboats, Rivers Inlet" (pictured below) would become the first "million-dollar painting" of his. 2018 say this same painting sell for two million dollars.  

In 1946 newly back with his family recovering from his war years he was questioning his art career.  He had no patrons or collectors to come home to.  There was no market for contemporary Canadian Art. 

Fortunately, Lawren Harris had his eye on him. 

Lawren Harris was one of the most important figures in Canadian art, a man of wealth and influence.  (His family produced farm equipment in Ontario becoming Massey-Ferguson after a few short years).  Harris was the driving force behind the Group of Seven and was much changed in 1927 when he met Emily Carr. 

At the National Gallery in Ottawa, Emily Carr was introduced to the world with her exhibition of 44 paintings.  The show went on to Montreal and Toronto.  After that show Harris and Carr began corresponding.  

In 1940 Harris moved to Vancouver, and continued to advocate for Carr, introducing her to Max Stern in 1944.  His art dealer and owner of Montreal's Dominion Gallery.  Later that year they produced the only successful gallery show Carr ever had.  They sold 46 of her 59 paintings. 

While planning her estate Carr gifted 245 of her works to the Vancouver Art Gallery, the rest were sold and a scholarship fund was set up. Carr died in 1945 of a heart attack.

Now back to Hughes.  He was given the second Emily Carr Scholarship to be awarded and spent a week travelling up the coast collecting new inspiration, places such as Alert Bay, and Prince Rupert. 

Max Stern was so taken with Emily Carr that he approached Lawren Harris asking if there were any other west coast artists that he should know about.  Harris told him about Hughes. 

In 1951 Hughes and his wife decide to leave his families home in Victoria, just down the street from where Carr had lived, to move to Shawnigan Lake.  

After Harris' recommendation Stern was anxious to meet Hughes. Stern flew from Montreal arriving in Victoria with the hopes of meeting Hughes only to be told that he had moved to Shawnigan Lake.

​Back in those days there were no phones in Shawnigan Lake so there was not way to reach Hughes to set up an appointment.  Stern grabbed a reporter from the Victoria paper and headed up to Shawnigan Lake unannounced.  With no idea where Hughes lived they went to the post office to inquire and were directed to Hughes house. 

With a knock on the door and a quick introduction Stern asked if Hughes had anything to show him.  Hughes proceeded to take him upstairs to the studio.  $500 later, the studio was cleaned out, Stern was heading back to Montreal, with the instruction that he would purchase everything that Hughes could produce.  Thus began the exclusive representation of Hughes work by Max Stern.

Over the years of representing Hughes, Stern urged him to head to the major European Museums, or New York, even to travel to Montreal, but Hughes was a simple man.  He didn't have the funds or the desire to travel far afield. He was adamant that if he took time to travel his paintings would fall behind causing a hardship to the creation of his art that he wasn't willing to do.  Instead he opted for taking trips around British Columbia by bus, initially, and later in his own car.  He would stop at a town of interest and spend a few days creating a painting on the spot. Back in the studio he would pull these field studies out and work them into larger pieces. ​

"In 1947, Hughes was awarded an Emily Carr scholarship and one year later was elected member of the Canadian Group of Painters.  His reputation grew in the 1950s, especially after being represented by Max Stern, owner of the Dominion Gallery in Montreal.  He was commissioned by the Standard Oil Company to travel on a tanker to paint a series on the British Columbia coast.  He also traveled and sketched on the coast and the interior of B.C. on Canada Council grants (Kaslo on Kootenay Lake, 1969).  Hughes was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy in 1968 and received the Canada Council Award one year later.  In 2001 he received the Order of Canada and was awarded the Order of British Columbia in 2005." - National Gallery of Canada.

I hope you have enjoyed this foray into one of our national treasures.  It's wonderful to explore our West Coast art history and see the links between the key art players of the time.  As a B.C. based artist I like to think that I'm carrying that legacy forward. 

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