POSTING #108

Loading

A Memorable Merrickville Character

In 1970 we went for a Sunday afternoon outing with the family, driving along the Rideau Canal, and ending up in a cafe in Merrickville for dinner.

The walls of the cafe were covered with paintings of local scenes from the past and present. The paintings, which were in the style of Grandma Moses---what art experts seem to call 'folk art' or 'naive'---were bright, cheerful, and lively ranging from scenes of  horses and buggies, maple syrup shacks, to a man in an outboard motor boat racing past the Merrickville Block House. The pictures had price tags in the range of $10-15.

When we asked the young server who had painted the pictures she said Jonas Robinson, a retired man who lived just a few streets away.

"If you like the paintings, you should visit him. He has a lot more pictures there."

She lowered her voice a little, "He is a nice man, but a little strange."

I told her that I liked the paintings and was tempted to visit Jonas but said that I wouldn't want to disturb him.

"Go and see him, he won't mind."

I felt a little awkward as I knocked on the door of a small, single-story house.

A tall, erect man, probably in his late 70s, opened the door. I explained that we had seen his paintings at the cafe and were told that he had more paintings that he was prepared to show visitors.

Inviting us in, he settled down in what was obviously his favourite chair, and pointed to dozens of paintings on the walls of the living room, meanwhile asking us questions about ourselves.

He was treating us as guests, not customers.

We decided on five paintings but since, unlike the cafe, they weren't priced, I asked how much they would be.

He took them one-by-one.

Pointing to the first one, he said that he had bought the elaborate, gilt frame at an auction and it had cost him $3. The frame was in poor shape so he had bought some gilt paint to spruce it up, and that had cost $2. After a pause, he asked whether $9 would be too much. I said that would be fine.

For the second one, he said he had had to buy a new tube of red oil paint. He did some silent calculations and asked for $8. I nodded.

As he went through the two next paintings he followed the same kind of calculations---a new brush for that one, wood for the frame for that one, and so on. Both were under $10.

The last one, the same picture we had seen at the cafe of a man in an outboard motor boat on the canal in front of the Block House, he said he couldn't sell. It was the first version of that painting that he had copied many times because it seemed popular with tourists. He wanted to keep the original.

But, he said, he would paint us a copy, if we wished.

"The same scene?', I asked.

"Yes, but I'll have to know which flag you want on the Block House pole. Some people want that new flag (Parliament had approved the maple leaf flag just a few years before) while others prefer the Union Jack".

I had supported the introduction of the new flag but thought that the Union Jack would look more correct beside the venerable Block House.

He asked us to come back in two weeks.

When we returned to pick up the painting, he told us a little more about himself. He had been a house painter until he retired. I seem to recall that he also talked about being clerk of the town at one time, but that memory is hazy.

One winter when he was in Florida a friend saw that he was getting bored and suggested that he try his hand at painting---not houses but pictures. He found that he enjoyed painting the Florida palm trees and old shacks. Soon he was hooked.

Some pictures were painted from his memories of growing up in the Merrickville area while others were painted on site, using an easel.

On the way home from Merrickville after picking up the Block House painting, Pat and I agreed that he was not 'strange', the word used by the cafe server.

Eccentric perhaps.

He was contented, happy with a retirement hobby that he enjoyed. And a hobby that didn't cost him anything. People were kind enough to buy his paintings at a price that paid for the canvas, oils, brushes and frames.

In his view, he had things made.

We re-framed the paintings in a way that we thought showed off the pictures better than the auction-bought frames, but we wonder sometimes if we should have left them in the frames Jonas had selected for them.

The paintings have hung in all the homes we have owned since the 1960s. We have thoroughly enjoyed them, both for the images and for the memories they bring back of our conversations with Jonas.

About seven years ago when I was organizing a study tour of Statistics Canada for a group of Jordanian officials, I called a statistician to arrange a meeting. We set a time for the meeting, which would take place the following day, but she said she might be late because she was driving to Ottawa from her home in Merrickville.

I told her about our purchase of paintings in Merrickville in 1970.

"Oh, you met Jonas Robinson!", she exclaimed.

I said we had bought five of his paintings.

"Lucky you, his paintings are becoming popular and sell for several hundred dollars!".

Searching the Internet recently, I found that in 2005 the Merrickville and District Historical Society had held a retrospective exhibition of Jonas's paintings. Local residents loaned some 50 paintings for the exhibition.

The Society's Newsletter of Spring 2005 discusses how the man who was often considered ' loveably eccentric' became famous partly due to his 'discovery' in the 1970s by Mike Laurie, an Ottawa dealer in antiques and folk art. The article reports:

"He (Laure) first saw a Jonas painting in a shop window in Ottawa in the early 70’s. Struck by its simple charm he tracked down the painter to Merrickville. Here he befriended Jonas and began collecting his work and was instrumental in having Jonas Robinson’s work included in the Ottawa Canadian Museum of Civilization collection."

The article goes on to say that the nephew of Jonas Robinson, Mervin Robinson, spoke to the overflow crowd at the opening of the retrospective exhibition.

" Mervin Robinson indicated Jonas would not only have been amazed but embarrassed at the present prices achieved for his work. Said nephew Mervin, “They are currently selling between $300 to $600 each” if you can find one. When the audience was asked by Mike Laurie how many folks had pictures by Jonas Robinson, practically everybody in the room raised their hands. With new knowledge of his reputation, many who acquired his work for the whimsy of the painter as well as the art, find themselves with not only treasured, but valuable remembrances of this memorable Merrickville “Character”.

As his nephew said, Jonas might have been "amazed but embarrassed at the present prices achieved by his work" but I think he would also have been thrilled---in a quiet, rural Ontario gentlemanly kind of way---at all the pleasure his paintings have given.

Here is the Hunter collection of Jonas Robinson's works (click on the images to enlarge them):

A typical scene of old-time Ontario, showing neighbours, homes, horses and a church.

One of Jonas's Florida painting

This is the picture that Jonas painted especially for us. Note the Union Jack

This is the signature on the Block House picture, nothing flamboyant, just his name and the date---printed I think with a ball-point pen.

A farm home and barn in the winter. I like the way Jonas captured a cold, winter sky.

Jonas called this painting "Sugar Time".

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

See you on April 3rd for Posting #109 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting,  or email me at johnpathunter@gmail.com.