William George Richardson Hind
The Game of Bones
William George Richardson Hind
Nottingham, England, 1833 – Sussex, New Brunswick, 1889
The Game of Bones
1861-1862
Watercolour and gouache over traces of graphite
25.7 x 42.9 cm
Purchase, acquisition fund for Canadian art donated by Mr. Maurice Corbeil, Mrs. Howard W. Pillow, Mr. and Mrs. A. Murray Vaughan, Mr. and Mrs. Neil B. Ivory, and Horsley and Annie Townsend Bequest, inv. 1967.1567
Graphic Arts
Writers interested in William G.R. Hind have noted the emphasis placed on the assemblage of clothing and accessories that compose what amounts to a still life in the foreground of this watercolour. The items contained therein were probably inspired by objects collected by the artist’s brother, the explorer Henry Houle Hind. The landscape depicted beneath a stormy sky might well be the mouth of the Moisie River, but the focus of the composition is the narrative frieze formed by the two guides: Louis, a member of the Montagnais Nation, from Sept-Îles, and Michel, from the Naskapi Nation. The game of bones they are considering is not discrete from the still life in the foreground, booty suggested by the arrows on both sides: partly clothed, one of the subjects finds himself with less to offer than the other facing him.
