On the subject of new collections at the AGO, when we reopen in 2008 one of our 110 galleries will be devoted to the display of 125 historic ship models spanning about 350 years. (These are part of a very large gift from Ken Thomson that includes European and Canadian art.) We’ve never exhibited ship models before. To me the models themselves are pretty amazing – - miniature carvings really, some no more than an inch or two long. Part of the story is how these remarkable models were created, but part of it too is about the role that ships have played in our collective history (haven’t most Canadians arrived here by ship over the centuries?) and the role they continue to play in our lives, if discreetly. Don’t most products that we trade with China for example arrive or leave by ship? Weren’t Canadians recently caught in the conflict in Lebanon evacuated to safety by ship? I’ve been wondering too, what are the major events of the 20th century that were defined by the ship – such as D-Day?
Image: Navy Board Model of “The Revenge” (a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line in service 1718–40), c. 1718, attributed to Hayward, master shipwright at Woolwich Dockyard, wood, gilded and painted with metal fi ttings, 109.2 cm, The Thomson Collection, Thomson Fund Purchase, 2005. © 2006 Art Gallery of Ontario