Edwin Holgate as Printmaker

Among the most celebrated works by Canadian artist Edwin Holgate (1892–1977) are his prints. Although modest in number—he made just over sixty, almost all in the decade after 1922—they are brilliant examples of the early 20th-century revival of woodblock printing. Today, Holgate is recognized as one of Canada’s finest printmakers.​​

This exhibition features prints by Holgate from a significant recent gift of the artist’s work from Leonard and Ellen Milberg in loving memory of their son, David Milberg. The nearly 30 prints on view reveal Holgate’s varied interests, including landscape, portraiture, figure studies, and rural life. The imagery in some of his most famous prints also captures what are today regarded as deeply troubling moments in Canada’s history, ones defined by Indigenous erasure and efforts to assimilate First Nations peoples under an umbrella of Canadian nationalism.

Edwin Holgate was one of Canada’s leading artists in the 1920s and 1930s. Trained in Paris, he spent his early career in the city of Montréal, Québec, where he also became a highly respected teacher. Holgate loved the outdoors, and he traveled widely to capture the monumental scale of Canada’s landscape and the people who made their lives there. The success of his work led to an invitation in 1929 to join the Group of Seven, a collective of highly influential Canadian landscape painters who are today among the country’s best-known artists.​

Credit: Overview from museum website