On The Trail To Mt. Assiniboine (The Headwaters Of Brewster Creek)

Belmore Browne

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American [1880-1954]

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ON THE TRAIL TO MT. ASSINIBOINE (THE HEADWATERS OF BREWSTER CREEK)

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oil on board

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16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm)

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signed lower right; signed & titled verso

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Belmore Browne was born in Staten Island, New York to a household of considerable means. He studied at the New York School of Art and the Academie Julian in Paris. His best-known paintings show scenes of Alaska, the Northwest and, perhaps most notably, the Canadian Rockies.

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After a short term serving in World War I, Browne, ever the avid outdoorsman, moved his family to Banff, Alberta. They built a small house on the main road that runs between the townsite and the Banff Springs Hotel; for the next 25 years this was the primary Browne family residence. Belmore and his son George were constant companions on the many trails of the Canadian Rockies. Eschewing guides, they always handled their own pack train, and camped in the alpine valleys.

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Browne, a contributing member of the American Alpine Club, penned the article, "Paintbrush on the Heights", for the Club's 1941 journal, in an attempt to explain his reverence for, and urge to paint the mountains of Canada. He writes:

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Beyond the shadow of Assiniboine or any of its brothers there are vast stretches of little-known mountains that roll eastward to the plains or westward to the wilds of British Columbia. Here one may find only an occasional peak of qualifying height, but among their seemingly modest ramparts one will discover spots of unsurpassed ruggedness and beauty. You will lay aside your ice-axe for the axe of the woodsman and hew a trail through the windfalls of virgin timber. You will find lakes and streams that no fisherman� eyes have rested on and high mountain valleys where your horses stand knee-deep in mountain 'feed' and snort their disapproval of the moose or elk that disturbs their rest.

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You will feel the same mental exaltation in reaching such a spot that you would feel in being the first to gain a difficult summit, and on these painting trips you will have adventures aplenty, for in packing horses beyond the blazed trail you will lead the life of early pioneers.

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For the past twenty summers I have taken my family into the mountains surrounding Banff. On each trip we have tried to reach places we have not seen before, but vast stretches of untried country still beckon us on.

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So grasp your paintbrush firmly, courageous reader, for, while its strange whims may lead you to the belief that you have clutched a witches�broomstick, it will carry you to visions you will never glimpse otherwise.