Radium Mine
Radium Mineis a painting made byCanadianartistA.Y. Jacksonwhen he visited the mine-site of the isolatedRadiummineatPort Radium, Northwest Territories,in 1938.[1][2]Jackson was a friend of prospectorGilbert LaBine,then the mine manager, and flew to the site with him.
Significance
[edit]When the painting came up for auction on November 22, 2012, it was described as "historically significant".[1][2][3]The painting was held privately by the LaBine family, prior to the auction, and had been available for public viewing only once. It was expected to sell for as much as $300,000CAD.
Second painting
[edit]Jackson is known to have composed several other paintings during his many visits to Port Radium.[4][5]It was purchased by a private owner, whose estate donated it to theNational Gallery of Canadain 1939.
Art historianJohn O'brian,an expert on Jackson's work, said he had been unaware of the existence of the painting.[3]
Extra interest in the painting was triggered by the mine being the prime source ofUraniumfor theatomic bombused inWorld War II.[1][2][6]
References
[edit]- ^abc"Painting tied to Manhattan Project to be auctioned".Asia One.2012-11-14. Archived fromthe originalon 2016-03-06.Retrieved2012-12-02.
A 74-year-old painting depicting the Canadian mine that produced uranium for the world's first atomic bomb will go under the hammer in Toronto on November 22, set to fetch up to Can$300,000 (S$367,000).
- ^abcSteve Murti (2012-11-13)."Long unseen, 'Radium Mine' by Group of Seven great A.Y. Jackson has nuclear significance".Yahoo News.Archived fromthe originalon 2012-11-17.Retrieved2012-12-02.
Jackson painted the work, along with one other now hanging in the National Gallery of Canada, during a 1938 visit to the Northwest Territories mine owned by his friend Gerald LaBine. The operation was on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake, about 440 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife.
- ^abRandy Boswell (2012-11-12)."A.Y. Jackson canvas showing Canadian mine that fuelled atomic bomb emerges at auction".Canada.com.Archived fromthe originalon 2013-01-31.
The painting, to be sold Nov. 22 at a Heffel Fine Art auction in Toronto, shows a bird's-eye view of the mine site, located about 440 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife. Radium Mine, expected to sell for up to $300,000, was exhibited only once, in 1939, and has remained with the LaBine family as a prized memento of Jackson's visit to the site just before the outbreak of the Second World War.
- ^Gray-Cosgrove, Carmella (May 2013)."Picturing uranium, producing art: A.Y. Jackson's Port Radium collection".Active History.
- ^"A.Y. Jackson: Radium Mine, Great Bear Lake 1938, oil on wood".National Gallery of Canada.Archived fromthe originalon 2012-11-23.Retrieved2012-12-02.
- ^Dave Core (2012-11-13)."'Radium Mine' by Group of Seven great A.Y. Jackson has nuclear significance ".Pipeline Observer.Archived fromthe originalon 2014-04-01.
But as Boswell's story points out, there's a darker element to the painting that Jackson certainly couldn't know at the time. Just a few years after his visit, uranium from what became known as the El Dorado mine was used in the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945. It was Canada's principal contribution to mammoth Manhattan Project.