Dennis Geden; Sick Heart: John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir as his alter ego, Sir Edward Leithen. Close to death.; 2014, oil on canvas, 23 by 14.75 inches (58.3 by 37.5 cm)
A recent painting by Dr. Dennis Geden is seeing some serious action. The work was hung in Britain’s prestigious Royal Academy of Arts, London. From there, it was purchased and then loaned to the John Buchan Museum, in Peebles, Scotland, to feature in their 2015 season, and it will be on special view at Queen’s University’s Herstmonceaux Castle in East Sussex, England, during the British John Buchan Society's Symposium in April of 2016.
Geden, an associate professor in Nipissing’s department of Fine and Performing Arts, was invited to hang the painting in the Royal Academy of Arts for their 246th Summer Juried Exhibition. Founded by artists in 1768, the Royal Academy of Arts provides a voice for art and artists, and is led by many of the greatest artists of the day.
The painting, Sick Heart: John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir as his alter ego, Sir Edward Leithen. Close to death., is a study of John Buchan late in life. Buchan was a prolific author of over one hundred books of fiction and non-fiction, a British Member of Parliament and the Governor-General of Canada. He is most widely remembered for thirteen adventure-thriller novels, the most famous being The Thirty-Nine Steps. Sir Edward Leithen, a regular protagonist in Buchan’s novels, bore a strong resemblance in character to Buchan himself. In his final novel, Sick Heart River, Buchan writes of Leithen’s death in the Canadian Wilderness. Shortly after completing the novel, Buchan died unexpectedly of a stroke.
The John Buchan Museum is housed in Chambers Institution, High Street, Peebles, and is open from Easter to the end of October.
Geden has also been invited to speak at the Canadian John Buchan Society’s annual dinner at the National Club, Toronto this May.
