PROVENANCE
Estate of Leon Katz, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE
Patricia Ainslie, Correspondences: Jack Shadbolt, Glenbow Museum, 1991, reproduced page 49

EXHIBITED
Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Correspondences: Jack Shadbolt, November 2, 1991 - January 5, 1992, catalogue #7

Jack Shadbolt was influenced in the 1930s by the American and Mexican muralists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Diego Rivera. The emphasis of the muralists on Social Realism and rural values coloured Shadbolt’s awareness in works such as this. He was also inspired by their use of solid three-dimensional form, and in Church, Saanich, form is robust and the buildings feel rooted in the landscape. The simplicity of the scene has a directness and honesty, with the inclusion of elements such as the vintage car and the electrical poles. Shadbolt’s use of light and shadow is dramatic, with light striking the white church and the path leading to it through the fence, contrasted with the moodiness of the shadows on the road and the clouded sky behind.

The related 1941 drawing entitled Old Church and Car was sold by Heffel in 2005, as was the related 1947 watercolour entitled Country Church, Saanich in June 2009.

This work is accompanied by a copy of a February 26, 1973, letter from the artist to Leon Katz in which he dates the painting circa 1936.

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