''Radium Mine'' is a painting made by

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

artist A.Y. Jackson when he visited the mine-site of the isolated

Radium Radium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in alkaline earth metal, group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, ...

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging *Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun M ...

at Port Radium, Northwest Territories, in 1938. Jackson was a friend of prospector Gilbert LaBine, then the mine manager, and flew to the site with him.

Significance

When the painting came up for auction on November 22, 2012, it was described as "historically significant". The painting was held privately by the LaBine family, prior to the auction, and had been available for public viewing only once. It was expected to sell for as much as $300,000

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

Second painting

Jackson is known to have composed several other paintings during his many visits to Port Radium. It was purchased by a private owner, whose estate donated it to the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

in 1939. Art historian

John O'brian John O'Brian is an art historian, writer, and curator. He is best known for his books on modern art, including ''Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism'', one of ''The'' ''New York Times'' "Notable Books of the Year" in 1986, and ...

, an expert on Jackson's work, said he had been unaware of the existence of the painting. Extra interest in the painting was triggered by the mine being the prime source of

Uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

for the

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...

used in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

.{{cite news , url = http://pipelineobserver.ca/long-unseen-radium-mine-by-group-of-seven-great-a-y-jackson-has-nuclear-significance-yahoo-news-canada/ , title = 'Radium Mine' by Group of Seven great A.Y. Jackson has nuclear significance , publisher = Pipeline Observer , author = Dave Core , date = 2012-11-13 , archivedate = 2014-04-01 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20140401101550/http://pipelineobserver.ca/long-unseen-radium-mine-by-group-of-seven-great-a-y-jackson-has-nuclear-significance-yahoo-news-canada/ , url-status = dead , quote = But as Boswell’s story points out, there’s a darker element to the painting that Jackson certainly couldn’t know at the time. Just a few years after his visit, uranium from what became known as the El Dorado mine was used in the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945. It was Canada’s principal contribution to mammoth Manhattan Project.

References

Paintings by A. Y. Jackson