Welcome to the third week of Advent! We are enjoying your visits to the gallery and your interest in our Calendar Exhibition. We hope you enjoy our selection of treasures for our third Advent Gift Guide which includes a charming selection of new paintings by Canadian, Danish and International artists.

Visit with Uno Langmann today, Saturday December 13, as well as next weekend Saturday
December 20th, from 12 to 3 pm.

Enjoy our 2026 calendar which you should have received in the mail. Come visit us in the gallery through
December 23 to view our Calendar Exhibition, pick your complimentary greeting cards and to savour home-made treats
with mulled cider glogg.

Enjoy! Jeanette and the Langmann Team

*Tobogganing by Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith (Canadian 1846-1923) watercolour, circa 1879 Size: 10 h x 12 w (with frame 14 x 17* ¼ in) *J21487*

Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith was born in London, England, the son of a miniature painter. He received early training under his father and later in London and Paris before immigrating to Montreal with his family in 1867. He worked at James Inglis’ photography studio where he retouched and tinted photographs, and from 1872 and 1884 as a freelance artist as well as teaching in art schools in Ontario. His first exhibition was at the Art Association of Montreal, and both Frederic and his father were founding members of the Society of Canadian Artists. Frederic was founding member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1872, and he was elected Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1880 and a full member in 1886.

Along with photographer William Notman Jr. and fellow artist Lucius O’Brien, Bell-Smith was one of the first artists known as the Railroad Painters, who took advantage of the promotional Railway Artists free pass program organized by William Van Horne to record the construction of the railroad. Following his trips west, Bell-Smith made regular visits across the country, intermittent with travels to Paris, England and Holland in the 1890’s. He obtained a prominent place in the art world, allowing him to exercise his interest in depicting historical events which furthered his reputation as a highly prominent Canadian artist. He applied his rigorous training in traditional artistic techniques to every subject. Working mainly in watercolours, his skills are exemplified in the detail found in all of his pieces from small to large scale. Each painting is delicate and refined, and treated with a distinctly charming composition. Read more…

*Summer Day in the Garden Picking Flowers by Viggo Pedersen (Danish 1854-1926) oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left "Viggo Pedersen 1918” Size: 22* ½ *h x 27 w in (with frame 30* ¼ x 35 in)
J21471

This painting, dated 1918, and exhibited in Stockholm in 1918. The colour palette and animated setting is delightful. The piece possibly depicts the artist’s second wife Johanne with their daughter Ruth. Viggo Pedersen was married to Elisabeth Borup in the early 1880s, with whom he had four children between 1885 and 1896, Read more…

*Italian Scene with the Artist’s Wife by Viggo Pedersen (Danish 1854-1926) oil on canvas, laid on board, signed and inscribed on reverse "Viggo Pedersen painting his wife in Italy 1909" Size: 25* ½ h x 18 ½ w (with frame 29 ½ x 22 ½ in) J20960

Well-known Danish artist Viggo Pedersen began his artistic career as a traditional naturalist, following the ‘plein air’ trend of Danish landscape painting in the 1880's. He attended the Royal Danish Academy from 1871 to 1878 and his work was decisively influenced by close contact with the Danish artists P.C. Skovgaard and Janus La Cour. It was under the influence of Skovgaard that Pedersen adopted the bright colours which he often used in his rendering of figures. During his travels throughout Europe he was influenced by the Barbizon School and its Romanticist depictions of rural life in nature. He exhibited widely including with the Danish Royal Academy and the Free Exhibition founded by the Danish Artist’s Association, and is represented in major museums throughout Scandinavia.

Landscape at Tommerup, Zealand by Viggo Pedersen (Danish 1854-1926) oil on canvas, signed inscribed and dated lower left "Viggo Pedersen, Tommerup, 1889" Size: 15 ¾ h x 24 ½ w (with frame 21 × 30 1/8 in) J21411

*View from a Sunny Village with a View Towards a Village Pond by Ole Ring (Danish 1902-1972)* Size: 8 ¾ h x 12 w in (with frame 12 ¼ x 16 ¼ in) J21301

*Flauenskjold Market by Gustav Adolf Clemens (Danish 1870-1918), oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left "GA Clemens 1911" Size: 22 ¾ h x 30 ¼ w (with frame 30 ¼ x 38 ½ in) J21469*

Mother and Daughter in Garden with Flowers by Knud Larsen (Danish 1865-1922) oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left "Knud L. 1921", inscribed on verso "to Knud Larsen's daughter Gudrun Larsen", in a Kleis frame Size: 15 ¾ h x 18 ¾ w (with frame 20 ¾ x 24 ¾) J21470

Danish artist Knud Larsen is known for his airy landscapes and genre scenes in the Scandinavian tradition of the Skagen artist colony. Larsen's works are bathed in the bright Northern light that made the Skagen artists famous. He captured atmospheric effects with Impressionistic brushstrokes and showed the influence of Danish artists such as Peder Severin Kroyer, Theodor Philipsen and L.A. Ring.

Larsen studied at the Danish Royal Academy. He travelled extensively throughout Europe and exhibited widely abroad, as well as at the Royal Academy (Charlottenborg) where he served on committees in 1905-1906 and from 1914-1922, and the council from 1908 until his death in 1922. He is represented in both public and private collections throughout Denmark.

*Princess Alice by Jack W. Hardcastle (Canadian 1881-1973) watercolour Size: 13 ½ h x 19 ½ w (with frame 18 1/8 × 24 in) J21412*

The self-taught marine painter Jack Hardcastle was born with his younger identical twin brother on board his father’s brig Martha, which sailed out of Whitby, England. He had a long and intimate relationship with the sea, and as a child loved to draw ships and spend time on the docks. Immigrating to Canada he worked on a farm in Quebec and homesteaded on the Prairies, and narrowly missed boarding the Titanic on his return journey from a visit home to England. After serving in France with the Grenadier Guards of Winnipeg during WWI he married and eventually settled in Nanaimo, B.C. where the couple had six children. He joined the Customs Department, and from their house on Haliburton Street used a telescope to observe marine activities in Nanaimo Harbour. He painted marine subjects throughout his life, collected information on ships and accumulated a reference library of nautical books, news items, marine manuals, as well as a scrapbook of over 3000 ship pictures. He painted mainly in watercolour and oil, made illustrations and model ships as well as souvenirs for the CPR including miniature lifebuoy paintings of their ships. His patrons included sailors who admired his attention to the detail and rigging on his paintings.

*An Afternoon in the Garden at Melsted with Cat by Carl Budtz-Moller (Danish 1882-1953) oil on canvas, signed with monogram and dated 1926 Size: 25 ½ h x 26 ¼ w (with frame 31 × 32 in) J21467*

Carl Budtz-Møller studied at the Danish Royal Academy and exhibited widely in Denmark, France and Italy. He travelled extensively throughout Europe and became especially known for his sunlit landscapes and figural scenes. The location of this painting, Melsted, is located on the north shore of Bornholm, an island south east of Copenhagen below Sweden. Budtz-Moller's interior paintings from Bornholm are excellent examples of the artist’s rendering of the strong Nordic sun playing and reflecting on the light and shadows. Read more…

*A Small Flock of Sheep Resting by a Fence by Henri De Beul (Belgian 1845-1900) oil on wood panel, signed and dated lower right "H de Beul, 1869" Size: 24 h x 32 ¾ w (with frame 34 ¾ x 43 in) J21247*

Henri De Beul, also known as Jean Henri De Beul, Joannes Henricus De Beul or Johan Hendrik de Beul, was born in Dendermonde (Termonde), Belgium in 1845. He came from an artistic family; his father was a cotton spinner and art dealer. The third of ten children, Henri and two of his brothers would go on to become successful artists. He was educated at the Academy of Dendermonde and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, and also received training under his older brother, artist Laurent De Beul. Henri romanticised paintings of Flemish or Brabantian landscapes with farm animals, dogs or his favoured subject of sheep, representative of the Dendermonde style popularised by Franz Courtens. Henri De Beul exhibited locally at Salons in Ghent, Brussels, and Antwerp, and internationally including in Bordeaux, Lille and Nice in France where he received a gold medal. He exhibited regularly from the age of 19 until his death at the age of 54 in 1900.

*Untitled by Gordon Appelbe Smith, acrylic on paper, signed lower right "Smith", Size: 24 ¼ h x 18 ½ w (with frame 36 x 29 5/8 in) J21215*

*Venetian Boats by John Hammond (Canadian 1843-1939) Size: 20 h x 28 w in (with frame 32 × 39 in) J21228*

John Hammond is one of Canada’s earliest celebrated historical artists. A great admirer of the French Barbizon and Dutch Hague schools, he is best known for his landscapes and marine views. Born in Montreal in 1843, Hammond decided to become an artist at the age of eleven. In his twenties, he traveled with his brother to London, England, and then sailed to New Zealand where they spent two and a half years panning for gold, returning to Canada in 1870. In 1871 he accompanied the Transcontinental Survey party who were making preliminary studies for the building of a railway. Hammond was employed by William Notman Photographers in Montreal, where he worked with artists John Fraser, Henry Sandham and Otto Jacobi. At the age of twenty-eight he was working hard toward becoming a full time painter, which he achieved in 1873 when he was elected as a member of the newly formed Ontario Society of Artists. Hammond was elected Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1890, and then as a full member in 1893, exhibiting regularly between 1891 and 1935.

Hammond moved to New Brunswick where he became the Principal of Mount Allison Ladies College, where he lived for the rest of his life. He sailed to europe regularly where he painted with James McNeill Whistler in Holland, with Francoise Millet at Barbizon in France, and later to Italy where he produced a large number of works. He exhibited at the Paris Salon, winning two awards in 1886. In 1920, he had a solo exhibition at the Jenkins Gallery, of which The Toronto Star Weekly noted, “There are pictures of Holland in winter, of coast farms, and tree bordered roads, but one feels that Mr. Hammond is essentially a painter of the sea and of the harbour, with its shipping, and that his greatest success are his atmospheric effects, when he fixes on canvas the prismatic beauty that comes from the sunlight struggling through the fog.”