Yvonne Mckague Housser

“Evening, Nipigon River” represents one of Yvonne McKague Housser’s contributions to the Sampson Matthews silkscreen project, the artist chosen with a group of her contemporaries by the committee of A.J. Casson, H.O. McCurry and A.Y. Jackson. Duval writes: “Early in the war years, Casson helped initiate a programme to produce silkscreen prints of Canadian landscapes to decorate the barracks and canteens of troops at home and overseas. These prints were to be large, and to portray all parts of the country, so that there would be something familiar to remind sailors, soldiers and airmen of their familiar home areas…The silkscreen programme proved to be one of the least expensive and most valuable moral boosters of the war. The prints were distributed and enjoyed in military posts around the world. For many of the servicemen, it provided an introduction to the work of many Canadian artists, and must have stimulated their continuing interest later in peacetime. Of all the wartime projects in which Casson was involved, this was the one in which he found the deepest satisfaction.”