From a little news item on inadvertent damage done to a painting in the Ontario Legislature, I learn that Queen's Park holds a version of Robert Harris's 1885 Fathers of Confederation painting, lost in Ottawa's Parliament fire of 1916. This one was painted in 1919 by Frederick Challener, at the time a significant artist (and one who had made a previous copy of the Harris before it was destroyed).
Since the well-known copy by Rex Woods is sadly not up to the original, I was thinking this might be worth seeing (and reproducing). Looks, however, pretty grim and brown -- unless it just needs a good clearing while the little hole recently put in it is restored. Otherwise, we may have to stick with the Woods. The other Challener Fathers, from 1914, is in Edmonton's Hotel Macdonald (!), according to Robert Ferguson of the Toronto Star.
Not exactly a good omen for Justin Trudeau, one might think: Bowell was also the last prime minister removed from office by his own cabinet and backbench. But looks good, I'd say. Let him keep it.
Images: Fathers from Ontario Legislature; Trudeau from Toronto Star.
