John B. Wilkinson
Not much is known about John B. Wilkinson. Originally from England, Wilkinson lived in Québec in December 1864 where he worked as a tinter at À l’enseigne du Soleil d’Or (Sign of the Golden Sun), a photographic studio owned by Jules-Isaïe Benoît dit Livernois. Wilkinson and his colleague, Joseph Dynes, tinted photographs, particularly life-sized portraits, with oil and watercolour. The two artists worked there together until June 1865 when Wilkinson, clearly a talented and conscientious portraitist, set up his own studio at 28, rue Saint-Jean, where he painted portraits on canvas from life or painted copies of miniatures to custom size specifications.
In October of that year, the artist offered a painting and drawing class with models in his studio, capitalizing on his “extensive teaching experience in England.” In 1870, Wilkinson presented a Vermont landscape at the exhibition of the Society of Canadian Artists held at the Art Association of Montreal and the following year, he exhibited a collection of his paintings at Morgan’s, a music store in Québec City. In January 1873, Canadian Illustrated News published two Wilkinson drawings of the Governor General, Lord Dufferin, on a sleigh-outing at Montmorency. In March, however, his lack of commissions forced him to close his studio and to pursue his career in Philadelphia.
Despite the distance, Wilkinson did however maintain ties to Québec: in 1879, Canadian Illustrated News and L’Opinion publique engrave one of his paintings (Falls on the Jaune River, near Quebec / Chutes sur la Rivière-Jaune, près de Québec) and eight Québec landscapes are featured at Montreal’s Hicks auction house in 1888. If Wilkinson’s landscapes of Charlevoix, the Eastern Townships and Québec City area are rare, his more numerous winter scenes in watercolour boast signature characteristics: the caribou hunt, ice fishing, tobogganing, ice-crossing at Québec, sledding, sledding accidents, being lost in a snowstorm, logging, etc.
* This biographical sketch was written by Mario Beland, Ph.D., and has been extracted from a longer article which can be read here.
