Maxwell Bates

Maxwell Bates' paintings have long played a role in Alberta landscape art. His forceful approach to applying colour in bold strokes is typical of his style, and his simple, yet structured compositions do not reflect the British tradition of landscape painting evident in the early work of Leighton and Glyde. The only Alberta painter with a similar, direct approach to applying paint on the canvas is William R. Stevenson, who was a close friend of Bates in the late 1920s when both took their first formal art training from Lars Haukaness. Haukaness was a Norwegian artist who settled in 1926 in Calgary, and who was familiar with Post-Impressionism. Bates' studies in 1949 under the tutelage of Max Beckman and Abraham Rattner may have consolidated further his expressive style of painting.

Within the framework of history of art in Alberta, Bates' paintings have been recognized as seminal because his expressive style provided an alternative approach to landscape paintings; one which differed from The Group of Seven and the English landscape traditions.

In retrospect, Bates observed that he still was a Post-Impressionist, who, in his own words, felt that "I don't think I've changed my vision essentially since 1930, before I went to England."

Foothills Landscape - 1948
oil on board, 13 in x 16 in
SOLD