Frederic Martlett Bell-Smith

The distinctive landmark summits of Castle Mountain in Alberta's Banff National Park make a splendid backdrop for this scene of a morning campfire along the banks of the Bow River by Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith. One of Canada's earliest and most prolific painters, Bell-Smith explored the Rocky and Selkirk Mountains along the Canadian Pacific Railway in the late 1880s, first seeing the region just two years after the last spike was driven. He returned often and gave us many remarkable depictions of an area that was largely unknown to the world at the time. Here, Castle Mountain glints through low clouds, which often rise up from the river in the morning. The peak was named by Sir James Hector in 1858, but its name changed to Mount Eisenhower in 1946 to commemorate Dwight D. Eisenhower's visit to Canada that year. The name change was controversial and reversed in 1979, with only the east tower of the peak retaining the Eisenhower name. Bell-Smith's depiction of the mountain is steeped in the romantic artistic view of his time, with its commanding scene encompassing the small figure with his tent, alone in the serene and majestic wilderness.