Old Capilano Beach, Vancouver, BC a signed and monogrammed etching by James Blomfield. From the booklet Rainbows in our Walls, Stained Glass in Vancouver 1890-1940 by Robert D. Watt. More on Robert Watt from wikipedia:

In 1973, he was appointed Curator of History at the Vancouver Centennial Museum (now the Vancouver Museum). He became Chief Curator in 1977 and was Director from 1980 to 1988. In 1988, he was appointed Chief Herald of Canada.

A reminder, I’ll be speaking at EastVanLove8 tonight at SFU Woodwards! Perhaps I’ll see you there!

The lost murals of James Blomfield. Until I read the book A National Soul: Canadian Mural Painting, 1860s-1930s by Marylin J. McKay, I was not aware that James Blomfield had painted these two murals in the former Royal Bank building at the corner of West Hastings and Homer (now part of VFS). From  Volume 18 (1905), Issue 10, page 149 of the Canadian Architect and Builder (available online btw), here’s the brief text description:

These wall paintings have an allegorical reference to Vancouver and the Royal Bank. Vancouver Triumphans represents the rising City of Vancouver with Industry on one side and Agriculture on the other. The figure in the lower panel is a personification of Acadia, representing the Maritime Provinces in which the Royal Bank had its origin. The coats of arms inserted in the frame round Acadia are those of the Crown, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and, (at the bottom) the City of Halifax, which is the parent city of the Bank.

Vancouver Triumphans may have actually inspired Paul Goranson consciously or subconsciously when he drew this proposal for the British American Bank Note Company in the 1930s. 

I can’t tell exactly where these murals would have been painted, but perhaps we can determine this after a closer look inside the building. Though I can’t be sure, these murals may actually be buried under a few layers of paint!

Speaking of lost murals, another one of James Blomfield’s greatest works was destroyed by fire on April 15, 1957. James had painted the ceiling of the ballroom at Government House in Victoria in 1903. From page 31 of A National Soul: Canadian Mural Painting, 1860s-1930s: 

The work was composed of colossal figures of Indian warriors on the spaces between the ceiling arches, connecting by an interlace design of pine cones, pine needles, dogwood, and other local flora. Painted with the totems (protective spiritual images) of various Northwest Coast Native tribes, these figures appear as “Canadianized” classical personifications.

Images B-08471, C-07768, D-03031, E-02750 of Government House are from the BC Archives. But if anyone has any pre-1957 images in colour, please let me know!

Special thanks to the VPL librarian for your assistance with this post!

via diarrheaheartfailure:

By Skate and Art we Prosper; an alternate coat of arms for the city of Vancouver’s skateboard community, with props to James Blomfield. Realized by ECUAD student Sterling Richter, a Vancouver illustrator and animator. According to his website, he received his BA Honors degree in Media Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2010 and is currently working on his Bachelors of Fine Arts through the Illustration program.

Low Tide on False Creek, by James Jervis Blomfield (1872-1951). I guess it was probably painted some time between 1898-1907, when much of the rest of his Vancouver work was created, although it is not actually dated. (72-437 #1) From the City Archives.

A Plaque for Lauchlan Alexander Hamilton, unveiled on April 20, 1952, located at the corner of Hastings and Hamilton.

In commemoration of the sixty-seventh anniversary of the incorporation of Vancouver as a city the Board of Park Commissioners of that city tendered a dinner on Monday evening, April 20, to all pioneers of Vancouver resident in the city before the arrival of the first passenger-train on May 23, 1887. The dinner was held in the Stanley Park Pavilion, and the highlight of the evening was the unveiling of a bronze panel commemorating the precise spot where Mr. Lauchlan Alexander Hamilton drove the first stake at the edge of the forest and commenced the survey of the townsite in the autumn of 1885. The panel is the work of Sydney March, of Farnborough, Kent. Miss I. O. Hamilton, only child of the pioneer surveyor, who as a child of 7 lived with her parents in their cedar-shake cottage in what is now the Fairview District while the survey was progressing, travelled from her home in Toronto to unveil the panel, which was ultimately erected on the south west corner of Hamilton and Hastings Streets in Vancouver. The inscription is as follows: — Here stood Hamilton, first land commissioner, Canadian Pacific Railway, 1885. In the silent solitude of the primeval forest. He drove a wooden stake in the earth and commenced to measure an empty land into the streets of Vancouver.

Text from The British Columbia Historical Quarterly, July - October, 1953

Sculpted by Sydney March, who “lived at ‘Goddendene’ at Locksbottom, Farnborough, Kent [County, England]” [source] based closely on the original crest by James Jervis Blomfield, seen here.

Sydney’s brother Vernon March also designed the National War Memorial in Ottawa, which was unveiled May 21, 1939, just a few months prior to the start of WWII.

Vernon March was assisted by his six brothers and his sister who completed the work after his untimely death in 1930. They molded the full size figures in clay, then cast them in plaster and finally made the bronze figures in their own foundry.  [source]

The City of Vancouver’s coat of arms by James Jervis Blomfield (1872 - 1951). As described by the artist himself, the design was first made in 1901, adapted in 1903, and presented to the city in 1945 in the form of a memorial plaque. Now in the Vancouver City Archives. 

Old Prospect Point, an etching by James Jervis Blomfield (1872 - 1951), from the City Archives, also seen in the book Waterfront The Illustrated Maritime History of Greater Vancouver by James P. Delgado.