Sketch for mural The History of Mount Allison

1948
graphite, ink and gouache on paper
27.3 x 35.2 cm
Gift of the Artist, Collection of the Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University

Colville receives a commission from Mount Allison University to paint a mural entitled The History of Mount Allison, located in Tweedie Hall. The complex problematics of time-space relationships in two dimentional form are brilliantly handled, utilizing the central image of a horse and rider (taken from a painting by Velasquez) around which all other scenes revolve. According to historian Helen Dow, it is this central image of the man and the horse — representing the itinerant evangelist converting University founder Charles F. Allison — that forms the underpinning for the entire composition. The other scenes in the mural depict the unfolding of Mount Allison’s history, including the various academic disciplines, the record of the War, and student life.