As we pause to remember, on November 11, 2018, the centenary of the end of World War One, we should reflect upon not only the incredible bravery of those who fought in that conflict, its overall cost  and the war’s legacy to future generations of Canadians.

Born in a manse in Molesworth, Ontario, in 1884, John Paris Bickell would overcome family tragedy to become one of Canada’s true renaissance men of the first half of the twentieth century. JPB or ‘Smiling Jack’, as he was known to many – was fatherless at seven, owned his own brokerage firm at twenty-three and was a millionaire before he turned thirty. As one of the most important industrialists in Canadian history, J.P. Bickell cut an enormous swath across a nation that he helped to shape.

You might want to have a look at the nudes in The Beaver Hall Group and Its Legacy.

Today it is difficult to imagine that at the time they caused such a stir. It was not only their Modernist style, but also their “unbridled sexuality.” Several Beaver Hall artists dared to break academic tradition, which required that the nude be idealized and set in a landscape to counter any sensuality or eroticism.