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Item Name: Painting
Title: Station, Biggar
Maker: Robert Vincent
Year: 1962
Country: Canadian
Materials: watercolour on paper
Measurements: overall: 18.4 cm x 28.6 cm
ID Number: PC83.1.91
Legal Status: PERMANENT COLLECTION


Extended Label Info: In this watercolour painting, Robert Vincent uses his skills as an engineer to draft an unusual, high-angled perspective of main-street in a small village and the railway station building at the end of the street. Through the visual tangle of bare tree branches, electric poles and lines, we can see the train cars, the station, and the prairie beyond. Railway stations were common to many settlements across the prairies, vital components in the train system that connected communities across Canada. The architectural style of these stations tends to be quite similar, as many were built in the early 20th century, and the rail companies generally used only a few building plans. Robert Vincent (1908 – 1984) immigrated from Newcastle-on-Tyne in England to Russell, Manitoba in 1927. He served in the British Army during World War II, and as a member of the Royal Engineers Expeditionary Force, he taught drawing to army engineers. Returning to Canada in 1947, Vincent settled in Saskatoon and worked as a construction worker and field engineer with the Trans-Canada Highway development. Though primarily self-taught as an artist, Vincent was an active member of the Saskatoon arts community, and his work was exhibited regularly in Western Canada. He created art with a diverse range of subject matter, from precisely drafted industrial landscapes to more naïve wilderness studies, animal and figurative work, and wood carving. His artwork is held in provincial collections, including MacKenzie Art Gallery, Saskatchewan Arts Board, University of Saskatchewan, ReMai Modern (formerly Mendel Art Gallery) and Dunlop Art Gallery. Vincent’s work was exhibited at Dunlop Art Gallery in 1974, with the work of landscape artist, Greg Hardy.