Robert Wakeham Pilot 1898 - 1967

Private Collection, Niagara-On-The-Lake

David McTavish, Canadian Artists In Venice, 1830 - 1930, Kingston, 1984, p. 16

This work has been viewed under UV and it is in pristine condition.
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After each of the World Wars, Pilot travelled in Italy. Venice had a particular attraction for him, as it had for many other Canadian artists: Morrice, Cullen Gagnon and Brymner among them.

Pilot liked to paint the ordinary life of the streets in Montreal and Quebec City, and the same subjects drew him to Venice, where he has caught the crowds of tourists and natives walking along the canals and over the bridges which one finds there at every turn. Pilot was also sensitive to the beguiling contrast between cotemporary life and ancient buildings, both in Quebec and in Venice. 

Pilot also found the light in Venice enchanting, as many artists still do. Brymner once described this perfectly in a speech to the Art Association of Montreal:

The general colour of Venice is a grey rose colour running into all kinds of other greys ... These colours lighted by the late afternoon sun reflected in the gently undulating canals (provide) the most unique combination of beauty I have ever see. It is perfectly bewildering at first if your intention is to try and paint it.