Material Type

Artifact

Other Name

FRITZ SICK PASTEL PORTRAIT

Date Range From

1930

Date Range To

1932

Materials

PASTEL, PAPER, WOOD

No. Pieces

1

Height

50.5

Length

43

Width

1.75

Description

FRAMED, PASTEL ON PAPER, PORTRAIT OF FRITZ SICK, BUST. ARTIST’S SIGNATURE BOTTOM RIGHT, “N. GRANDMAISON”. FIGURE IS SKETCHED WITH LOOSE, LAYERED LINES. COLOUR IS PALETTE LIGHT, PAPER HAS YELLOWED HUE AND IS TEXTURED WITH FINE GRIT. BROWN WOOD FRAME, CARDBOARD BACKING, METAL HANGING WIRE.

Subjects

ART

Historical Association

FINE ARTS

History

THIS DRAWING IS A PORTRAIT OF FRITZ SICK WHO FOUNDED THE LETHBRIDGE BREWERY IN 1901 AND FORMED THE ASSOCIATED BREWERIES OF CANADA IN 1928 WITH HIS SON EMIL (WHICH BECAME SICK’S BREWERIES LTD IN 1944). SICK WAS BORN IN GERMANY IN 1859, AND EMIGRATED WITH HIS WIFE AND YOUNG SON TO NORTH AMERICA IN 1883. PRIOR TO SETTLING IN LETHBRIDGE, SICK TRAINED IN BREWING FUNDAMENTALS IN CINCINNATI, WORKED IN BREWERIES IN SAN FRANCISCO, TACOMA, AND SPOKANE, AND ESTABLISHED BOTH THE TRAIL BREWING CO. AND FORT STEELE BREWING CO. IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. SICK’S BREWERY IN LETHBRIDGE BECAME FAMOUS FOR ITS OLD STYLE PILSNER, WHICH IS STILL PRODUCED TODAY BY MOLSON’S BREWING CO, FOLLOWING MOLSON’S PURCHASE OF SICK’S BREWERY IN 1959. THE DRAWING WAS DONE BY NICHOLAS DE GRANDMAISON (1892-1978), A PORTRATIST WHOSE PASSION WAS DEPICTING THE FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE OF SOUTHERN ALBERTA. DE GRANDMAISON WAS BORN IN 1892 TO AN ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY IN RUSSIA. HE STUDIED ART, MUSIC, HISTORY, LANGUAGES, CARTOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY, AND EMIGRATED TO CANADA AFTER BEING CAPTURED AS A GERMAN PRISONER OF WAR IN WWI. DE GRANDMAISON FELT AN AFFINITY WITH THE FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE OF THE PLAINS, PICTORIALIZING THEIR LIKENESSES AND RECORDING THE ORAL HISTORIES OF HIS SITTERS. DE GRANDMAISON MADE HIS LIVING WITH COMMISSIONED PORTRAITS OF POLITICIANS, BUSINESSMEN, AND COMMUNITY LEADERS, SELLING THESE WORKS WHILE KEEPING HIS PORTRAITS OF NATIVE SITTERS IN HIS PERSONAL COLLECTION. DE GRANDMAISON RECEIVED MANY HONORS DURING HIS LIFETIME, INCLUDING INDUCTION INTO THE PEIGAN TRIBE AND HONOURARY TITLE OF CHIEF. WHEN HE DIED, HE WAS BURIED ON THE PIIKANI RESERVE IN BROCKET, ALBERTA. IN APRIL 2011, GALT MUSEUM COLLECTIONS TECH KEVIN MACLEAN INTERVIEWED ELIZABETH BLAIR MATISZ, GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER OF FRITZ AND LOUISE SICK, ABOUT HER FAMILY’S HISTORY WITH LETHBRIDGE AND SOME OF HER GREAT-GRANDPARENTS BELONGINGS, INCLUDING THIS DRAWING. ELIZABETH SAID: “[THE DRAWING] MUST HAVE BEEN DONE WHEN MY GREAT-GRANDPARENTS WERE QUITE ELDERLY BECAUSE MY GREAT-GRANDMOTHER LOOKS QUITE ELDERLY IN THOSE PICTURES. THEY MIGHT HAVE… I SUSPECT THEY WERE DONE WHEN THEY WERE STILL IN ALBERTA JUST SIMPLY BECAUSE NICHOLAS DE GRANDMAISON WAS AN ALBERTAN ARTIST. I REMEMBER MY UNCLE EMIL WAS QUITE IMPRESSED THAT DE GRANDMAISON DID THE PORTRAITS. I THINK IT WAS KIND OF PROBABLY HIS BREAD AND BUTTER OCCUPATION AS AN ARTIST TO DO PORTRAITS. BY THAT TIME MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER WOULD HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED A RELATIVELY IMPORTANT MAN IN THE COMMUNITY… I KNOW THAT BOTH MY PARENTS FELT [THE DE GRANDMAISON PORTRAITS] SHOULD EVENTUALLY GO TO THE MUSEUM BECAUSE THEY FELT THAT THEY WERE A PART OF LETHBRIDGE HISTORY... [THE PORTRAITS] USED TO HANG IN A PLACE OF PROMINENCE IN [MY GRANDMOTHER’S] LIVING ROOM. YOU KNOW, TIMES WERE SUCH THAT IN THE FAMILY, LIKE MY GRANDMOTHER’S FAMILY AND THAT, LIKE FRITZ SICK HAD COME, HE WAS A BIT OF A FAMILY LEGEND, LIKE HE HAD COME OVER FROM EUROPE WITH VIRTUALLY NOTHING AND REALLY CREATED WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED AT THE TIME, AN EMPIRE. YOU KNOW THERE WAS A LOT OF FAMILY PRIDE IN THAT, MY GRANDMOTHER WAS VERY PROUD OF THAT AND SO THEY SORT OF… WHEN YOU WENT INTO HER LIVING ROOM THEY HELD AUDIENCE OVER WHOEVER WAS THERE… I THINK THAT PROBABLY FOR ME AND MY PARENTS AND PROBABLY FOR MY BROTHERS TOO, I THINK [MY GREAT-GRANDPARENTS’ BELONGINGS] ARE KIND OF A LINK TO THE PAST. YOU KNOW, THAT THEY ARE A PART OF YOUR HISTORY AND THERE’S SOMETHING THAT SEEMS OF VALUE THERE, WHERE YOU CAN, YOU KNOW, YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE THEY WERE HERE, AND THEY WERE HERE BECAUSE THEIR PARENTS WERE HERE, AND I FIND IT INTERESTING TO SEE THAT LINK…IT’S JUST KIND OF FASCINATING TO HAVE THESE THINGS HANDED DOWN FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION AND SEE WHERE NOT JUST YOUR, YOU KNOW YOUR PARENTS AND YOU KNOW YOUR AUNTS AND UNCLES AND YOU KNOW YOUR GRANDPARENTS, BUT THIS TAKES YOU BACK EVEN FURTHER AND, I REMEMBER WHEN I WENT TO GERMANY WITH MY GRANDMOTHER, THAT IT WAS SUCH A SHOCK TO MEET RELATIVES THAT I HAD NEVER MET BEFORE, BUT WHO LOOKED LIKE MY DAD, YOU KNOW, IT WAS, THERE WAS SOMETHING PROFOUND ABOUT IT, THAT, IT’S ALMOST AS THOUGH WE HAVE THIS YEARNING IN OURSELVES TO KNOW WHERE WE CAME FROM. THAT’S WHAT THE OBJECTS KIND OF HAVE ALWAYS BEEN LIKE TO ME, EVEN IF I DON’T KNOW ALL THE STORIES BEHIND EVERY ONE OF THEM. I FIND THERE IS SOMETHING PROFOUND ABOUT PICKING UP SOMETHING LIKE THIS AND THINKING, WOW, YOU KNOW, THIS GOES BACK A LONG WAY. ” FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND A TRANSCRIPT OF THE INTERVIEW, SEE PERMANENT FILE.

Catalogue Number

P20130007005

Acquisition Date

2013-04

Collection

Museum

Less detail