The Painter’s Papers

Imagine you’re a scholarly sleuth researching a biography of the painter Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald and you’re reading his letters to friends and colleagues, his travel diaries, and his teaching notes from the Winnipeg School of Art. FitzGerald’s life and aesthetic ruminations begin to unfold with a 1930 note to his good pal Bertram Brooker and extend to a transcript of a CBC Radio talk from December 1, 1954. Some Magnetic Force brings such material and more together, along with a brilliantly concise introduction by the art historian Michael Parke-Taylor, who provides a helpful framework with which to explore a unique archive.

Having immersed yourself in decades’ worth of FitzGerald’s writings, you might begin to feel that you and the artist have been chatting for hours — as he often did with his friends until well after midnight. After all, you’ve been with him as he navigates his various roles as creator, teacher, lover, and public...