The WAG holds an important range of historical Canadian art dating from the mid-1820s. Numbering close to 200 works, this segment of the collection has been built over the years through generous and discerning donations from collectors in Winnipeg.

The historical Canadian collection is anchored by the work of artists such as Peter Rindisbacher, Paul Kane, W. Frank Lynn, Frederick Verner, and William G.R. Hind that portray exploration, cross-cultural contact, and settlement in 19th century Manitoba and pictorially chart the evolution of artistic trends and aesthetic sensibility in the province. Women, such as Mary Riter Hamilton, Lucile Casey MacArthur, and Marion Nelson Hooker confirm Manitoba’s growing art scene in the late-nineteenth century.

The WAG also brings together a strong selection of paintings, drawings, and prints from the Confederation period by artists from other regions of the country. Works range in subject matter and styles, from genre scenes by Cornelius Krieghoff and Robert Todd, to luminary landscapes by John Hammond, Otto Reinhold Jacobi, Lucius O’Brien, and Homer Watson, to portraits in the French Academic manner by Robert Harris, George Reid, and William Raphael. The WAG’s 19th century Canadian collection is capped off, and the modern era heralded, with a robust sampling of early Impressionist landscapes by J.W. Morrice and Maurice Cullen.

A sizeable and key collection area for the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the modern Canadian art holdings exhibit great depth and breadth, and include many works of national historic and aesthetic significance.

Chief among these is an historically and stylistically comprehensive collection, numbering over 1,000 paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures by Manitoban L.L. FitzGerald, one of Canada’s best known artists. Important bodies of work by other Manitoba-based artists of national repute include prints and paintings by Walter J. Phillips, Tony Tascona, William Kurelek, Ivan Eyre, and Ester Warkov.

Early modern Canadian art is well represented by artists from coast to coast, and includes important works by David Milne, Emily Carr, the Group of Seven, Prudence Heward, and Charles Comfort, among many more. The WAG’s extensive collection of early modern Canadian art testifies to the formative role of the Winnipeg School of Art, a sister civic institution between 1913 and 1950, through which the Gallery attained some of its earliest and best examples. Canadian mid 20th century  abstraction, specifically by Prairie artists, is a well-developed sector of the collection, encompassing paintings, prints, and sculpture by the Regina Five, Toronto’s Painters Eleven, as well as late- and post-Automatist painting from Montreal.

The WAG’s collection of Canadian abstract painting is underpinned by Bertram Brooker’s Sounds Assembling (1928), acquired in 1946 for the Gallery by then-principal of the Winnipeg School of Art, L.L. FitzGerald. This painting by the Manitoba-raised and Toronto-based artist is one of the first abstract works to be produced and exhibited in Canada.

The WAG collects contemporary production in a plethora of mediums, such as drawing, collage, sculpture, installation, and video. However the majority of the collection is equally divided between a representation of prints and painting.

The focus of the Contemporary Canadian art collection is on work created by artists from the Prairies, particularly Manitoba. These works range from figurative to abstract, from surrealist to highly expressive. The subject matter represented in this collection is equally diverse. Over the past decade, Winnipeg has been identified as a cultural hub and this hot bed of talent is characterized by local artists’ penchant for experimentation. A number of works in the Gallery’s collection are excellent examples of the exceptional work created by Winnipeg artists who have gained serious recognition nationally and internationally. Key acquisitions have included pieces by the Royal Art Lodge, Cliff Eyland, Aganetha Dyck, Wanda Koop, and Eleanor Bond. Through the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance program, the WAG has been fortunate to acquire a number of important works from living artists who have a connection to Manitoba. Recent additions include an impressive painting by Janet Werner and a major multi-media installation by Zachary Longbow. The past five years of collecting activity have also been dedicated to increasing the representation of women artists in the collection and several acquisitions have been sought after and successfully obtained with this directive in mind. The Gallery also collects work in a variety of media by Canadian and international artists that expands and complements this regional representation.