Arthur Henry Howard Heming (January 17, 1870 – October 30, 1940) was a Canadian painter and novelist known as the "chronicler of the North" for his paintings, sketches, essays and books about Canada's North.

Career as an artist

Born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, Ontario and raised in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

, he studied at the Hamilton Art School, then in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

at the Art Students League with

Frank DuMond Frank Vincent DuMond (August 20, 1865 – February 6, 1951) was one of the most influential teacher-painters in 20th-century America. He was an illustrator and American Impressionist painter of portraits and landscapes, and a prominent teac ...

, and the Old Lyme Art Colony, and in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

with the Welsh master

Frank Brangwyn Sir Frank William Brangwyn (12 May 1867 – 11 June 1956) was a Welsh artist, painter, watercolourist, printmaker, illustrator, and designer. Brangwyn was an artistic jack-of-all-trades. As well as paintings and drawings, he produced des ...

.A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada Heming was diagnosed as

colour blind Color blindness or color vision deficiency (CVD) is the decreased ability to see color or differences in color. It can impair tasks such as selecting ripe fruit, choosing clothing, and reading traffic lights. Color blindness may make some aca ...

and as a result worked mostly in black and white for almost all of his life, with the addition of yellow. However, near the end of his career, he started to paint using the full range of colours, having been told by a fellow artist he was no longer colour blind. He was an associate member of the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...

. A 124-page exhibition catalogue was produced by

Museum London Museum London is an art and history museum located in London, Ontario, Canada. It is located near the forks of the Thames River. It started its operations in 1940 with London Public Library and amalgamated with London Regional Art Gallery and Lon ...

in 2013, with five essays, ''Arthur Heming: Chronicler of the North''. It followed a 2012 gallery

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...

of his work, shown at Museum London.

Novels

His highly popular novels were only three in number, but they enjoyed great success in serial form and then in fine book editions from major publishers. His novels were not armchair concoctions, as Heming had travelled extensively in the wilderness ... :"Among his northern journeys; he accompanied noted gentleman adventurer Caspar Whitney to the Barrengrounds, patrolled with the Royal North West Mounted Police in the mountains, and altogether travelled 550 miles by raft, 1000 miles by dog team, 1700 miles by snowshoe and 3300 miles by canoe."Michael Peake, "The Art of Heming", article at the canoe hub canoe.ca website. Canadian Express by Arthur Heming

Bibliography

* ''Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada'' (1898) (

James Williams Tyrrell James William Tyrrell was a Canadian topologist and author. Like his older brother, Joseph Burr Tyrrell, Tyrrell went on physically demanding expeditions to Canada's sparsely settled, rugged North. In 1898 he wrote ''"Central Canadian Waterways ...

, illustrated by Heming who was on the expedition). * ''Mooswa & Others of the Boundaries'' (1900) By William Alexander Fraser. Illustrated by Heming. New York: Scribner's, 1900. * ''The Drama of the Forests: romance and adventure'' (1921, novel). * ''Spirit Lake'' (1923, novel). * ''The Heming Paintings of Northern Life'' (1923, limited edition artbook). * ''The Living Forest'' (1925, novel). Heming also illustrated books by other authors, especially those of the author William Alexander Fraser (1859-1933, not to be confused with the Canadian politician of the same name). Biographical works include: ''Miss Florence and the Artists of Old Lyme'' (1971, local history); and ''Arthur Heming: Chronicler of the North'' (2013, Museum London exhibition catalogue).

Family history

The Hemings emigrated from Bognor (Regis) England in the top half of the 19th century. Edward Francis Heming left Bognor and settled just outside

Guelph, Ontario Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Welli ...

. on the Eramosa Line in 1832. He called the farm 'Bognor Lodge' and it is still there today in Heming ownership. The northern half of the farm was expropriated and flooded to make

Guelph Lake Guelph Lake is a man-made reservoir on the Speed River, in the Township of Guelph/Eramosa. It is located upriver and slightly northeast of the city of Guelph, Ontario. The reservoir was created in 1974, with the construction of the Guelph Lake da ...

. The Heming family traces its ancestors back to King Harold Heming of Denmark, the last

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

king of Denmark, and the one who brought Christianity to Denmark. They eventually travelled through France and settled there having the town named 'Heming' after them. When France became Roman Catholic, they were/are Protestants, they emigrated again just across the English Channel to the seaside spa of Bognor. Edward Heming had five sons in Canada West. One of them was Charles Heming and he became the postmaster of the small village of Sydenham. Because there was another growing town near Ottawa with the same name, Charles was asked to change the name of Sydenham. He changed it to 'Bognor' and it is there today - a tribute to the pioneering Canadian Heming family.

References

External links

* * *
Arthur Heming Collection
at the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...

, Ottawa, Ontario. {{DEFAULTSORT:Heming, Arthur 1870 births 1940 deaths 19th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters 20th-century Canadian painters Canadian male novelists Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 19th-century Canadian male artists 20th-century Canadian male artists