City of Ottawa
Ross Rheaume’s painting Aftermath will be displayed at city hall until October.For at least the next year, a painting of a burned-out Parliament by Ottawa artist Ross Rheaume will be displayed in the rotunda of city hall — a reminder of the 1916 fire that destroyed Canada’s national legislature and that prompted various 100th anniversary commemorations this winter.
Rheaume donated one of the four paintings from his Parliament Fire series to the City of Ottawa on Feb. 3 to mark the centenary of the tragic blaze, which also claimed the lives of seven people.
Titled Aftermath, the donated painting shows the Parliament buildings the morning after the fire, which destroyed Centre Block, when firefighters were still trying to put the flames out.
“I want to show the Parliament all covered in ice because it was so cold that the water they used to try to put the fire out formed these huge icicles on them,” says Rheaume. “So it’s like a giant frozen sculpture.”
Aftermath will be displayed at the Ottawa City Hall throughout the fire’s centennial year, says Ryan Kennery, a spokesperson for Mayor Jim Watson.
Rheaume says he likes doing history paintings in which the subject is some noteworthy moment from Canada’s past.
“I find stories that interest me in Canada and I bring them to life by painting pictures of it,” says Rheaume.
He says part of the fun of history paintings is conducting research in advance and learning what makes Canada the country it is today.
“People tend to become interested in things they can see. So as soon as you see the images, you start asking questions,” he says. “This is one of the reasons why I do it — so people will learn about Canada and its history.”
Rheaume’s Parliament Fire collection also includes Beginnings, which shows the original Parliament Buildings from before the fire, Inferno, which depicts the buildings at the height of the blaze, and Reconstruction, which captures the building of the present-day Centre Block.
“When the 100th anniversary was coming up, I contacted the mayor’s office and asked, ‘Would you guys be interested in this painting and display it?’ So that’s how it led to the donation.”
Rheaume says he decided to donate Aftermath to the city because it was his favourite painting out of the four.
This year’s Parliament fire anniversary marks a focal point for Canada and Ottawa, says Bytown Museum collections and exhibition manager Grant Vogl.
“It’s the 100th anniversary, where the story of the fire moved out of people’s memory and more into history,” he says.
The museum has commemorated the anniversary with an exhibition titled Forged in Fire: The Building and Burning of Parliament, which opened in conjunction with Winterlude on Jan. 29 and will run until Oct. 31.
Vogl says the fire is getting a lot of attention, both locally and nationally.