As we’re in the middle of a heat wave we thought we’d chill out with some cool artwork. In this case, Winter by John Hassall. Rather than a romantic landscape, with bright blue skies, snowy fields and trees rimed with ice, it depicts a much more austere view of winter. There is no romantic, sunny seasonal aspect here. Half snow, half leaden sky, with a small boy in animal skins staring sullenly out at the viewer, a dead bird at his feet. He looks like one of the Lost Boys from J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.
Low-resolution image of Winter (date unknown) by John Hassall © Manchester Art Gallery
On the gallery collections page of the website, a low resolution image of the work is described as a “Snowy scene. A small boy wrapped in winter clothes stands under an overcast sky at dusk. The boy is holding a stick, and there are bloodstains in the snow beside him. To the right, a bird hangs from a stick.”
But the story behind the picture is possibly even stranger. The painting is by John Hassall. Born in 1868, and after studying art at Antwerp and Paris, he became an illustrator, influenced by Alphonse Mucha and the Art Nouveau movement. Well known for his advertisements and poster designs, Hassall also illustrated children’s books. However, his most famous work is the advertisement featuring the Jolly Fisherman from 1908;
Jolly Fisherman poster, 1908, by John Hassall (source)
Hassall was a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, the Royal Society of Miniature Painters and the London Sketch Club. But before that, before his career as an illustrator blossomed, he went over to Canada in 1888 with his brother, Owen. They settled in Clanwilliam near the township of Minnedosa in Manitoba Province to study farming. He was there for two years, during which time he also sketched and painted.
A Farmstead in Clanwilliam near Minnedosa, Manitoba, Canada 1899, by John Hassall (source)
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ended this section of Hassall’s biography with the sentence, “For a time he was a pathfinder for a group of Sioux.”
Wait. What now?
Minnedosa is a small town on the Little Saskatchewan River. It was an area inhabited by the Dakota people of the Sioux nation, so it is not unreasonable to assume that there was some contact between First Nation people and the homesteading pioneers. But is there any evidence that Hassall was a pathfinder for any? Annoyingly, contemporary interviews with him were irritably vague:
“His early intentions, his short stay in Canada, and subsequent visit to the principal European art centres, are too well know to need further comment.”
- Interview with John Hassall, The Poster, June 1898.
Too well known? Really? Well, that’s kind of vexing. Maybe the University of Essex could help as they hold his archive. They checked his diaries for 1889 and 1890 for us (they don’t have a diary for 1888) and couldn’t find any mention of pathfinding or interaction with the Sioux people, with the caveat that the diaries are incomplete, written in pencil and that Hassall’s handwriting is not the easiest to decipher.
So whether it was a tall tale or whether he actually worked with them in this way is still inconclusive. But can a closer look at the painting at a higher resolution tell us anything else?
Detail of a young boy in animal skins; Winter (date unknown) by John Hassall © Manchester Art Gallery
This could be a child of the Sioux nation. Hassall seems familiar with their customs and dress. In this higher resolution image, we can see that what was once described to be ‘blood stains’ on the snow beside the boy is actually a feather tied to a stick. He also has a feather attached to his hat, and a bag slung over his shoulder. He is also wearing warm over-clothes of animal hide against the cold. The stick he is holding could be a spirit or medicine stick, which was used to protect from evil spirits during hunting or battle. Could the boy be celebrating his first successful hunt? His clothes differ from those worn by the pioneer children in similar works by Hassall, as below, whose cold weather gear is distinctly different.
Boys Hunting Moose by John Hassall (source)
The boy in Winter has also been hunting and caught a bird. Again, on closer high resolution inspection, there is no blood present despite the description. What there are, however, are berries on the snow.
Detail of the bird caught in the snare, Winter (date unknown) by John Hassall © Manchester Art Gallery
The boy has successfully created and set a spring trap using the red berries as bait. A spring trap is a simple method for catching small game. It is obvious from the detail that Hassall was very familiar with the style of trap, probably having used them himself to catch game.
Diagram of a spring snare trap (source)
There are only a small number of birds in Canada with white plumage, or whose plumage changes to white in the winter months for camouflage. However, with the use of berries as a bait, we can probably rule out raptors like the gyrfalcon, and birds like swans, geese, egrets, herons and terns. As the bird in the picture appears to have feathered legs, the only suspect left is a ptarmigan. They eat buds, leaves seeds, and berries. Ptarmigans also turn white in winter as camouflage from predators. There are three kinds of ptarmigan in Canada; rock ptarmigan, willow ptarmigan, and the white-tailed ptarmigan. It certainly looks like it could be one of these;
Hassall often drew on those formative experiences in Canada. Whether or not he ever served as a pathfinder to a tribe of Sioux, it was certainly a time of his life that made a great impression on him, and it was subject to which he would return occasionally in later years.
(Left) A study of a Native American wearing a Feathered Headdress by John Hassall (source), (centre left) Self Portrait with Indian Headdress, 1939, by John Hassall (source), (Centre right) A Native American by John Hassall (source) (Right) John Hassall in a feathered headdress at a London Sketch Club Ball (source)
This work raises a number of questions to which we still don’t know the answer and that’s why we love it. There’s nothing quite so evocative as a painting with a mystery.
We’ll leave you with a high-resolution image of the painting to enjoy, and if anyone reading this can confirm whether John Hassall was ever a pathfinder for the Sioux, or knows about anything else featured in the painting, do get in touch. We’d love to know more.
