The Pond – Homage to Grey Owl

Jean Paul Riopelle

1970

Gift of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, inv. 2001.184

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

An abstract expressionist painting with thick impasto brushstrokes in greens, reds, whites, and blues. Text is visible in the lower portion of the canvas. An abstract expressionist painting with thick impasto brushstrokes in greens, reds, whites, and blues. Text is visible in the lower portion of the canvas. Grey Owl, whose real name was Archibald Stansfeld Belaney, was born in Hastings, England, in 1888. He immigrated to Canada in 1906, became a fur trapper and invented an Indigenous identity for himself. In 1925, his wife, Anahareo, of Omàmiwinini (Mohawk) and Kanyen’kehà:ka (Algonquin) descent, convinced him that his hunting activities were harmful to the environment. He then set about spreading his new ecological convictions and became an early conservationist for Canada’s nationa