Fort Edmonton 1856

Paul Kane made this painting of Fort Edmonton using oil on canvas. The smooth surface achieved reflects his academic training, yet the painting’s subject matter opens onto a wider, more complicated story. Kane was commissioned to document Indigenous life, and the canvas is thus imbued with the tension between the artist’s hand, and the social realities of colonial expansion. He is painting a landscape, but this landscape is both occupied and contested. Notice how Kane frames the fort and its pristine flag, representing the commercial interests of the Hudson’s Bay Company, against the Indigenous encampment in the foreground. These dwellings, made from hides and wooden poles, represent a completely different understanding of labor and material. The painting thus becomes a study in contrasts: between settlement and Indigenous life, between the permanence of the fort, and the portability of the teepee. By paying close attention to these contrasts, we can appreciate the painting not just as a scenic view, but as a document of complex cultural interaction and exchange.