The Cape La Hune Painting
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| The painting I found in the cabin at Cape La Hune |
After pondering for a while I decided it was OK to go in and look around. The interior contained a mixture of practical furniture and decorative fittings and other items that one would expect to find in a holiday cabin used for hunting or fishing or simply for "getting away from it all". Some things seemed to me to date from the late 20th or early 21st centuries (including jars of tea bags), but I got the impression that the hut had not been used in recent years. I later spoke to a fellow yachtsman who had visited the site in the summer of 2023 and he told me the door to the hut was firmly shut and locked and he was therefore not able to enter it.
Most striking and poignant was the above painting of the settlement as it appeared early in the morning. I studied it for some minutes and as I did so, almost without realising it, my curiosity about this mysterious place was aroused. I looked around the hut some more before moving on to explore the rest of the area.
I had landed by dinghy on the beach that in the painting lies behind the small blue building at the foot of the cliff (mid picture) and the church. The hut was and hopefully still is, on the site of the small blue building (which I later discovered was probably the telegraph office). Leaving the hut I worked my way towards the main settlement site and quickly realised that there was nothing of it left standing. All of the buildings had completely disappeared. My assumption at the time was that they had been washed away by the elements, but during subsequent research I found photographs of homes being relocated by sea from other settlements as part of the Canadian Government's resettlement programmes. Is that what happened here I wonder?
A closer inspection of the settlement site revealed the remains of wooden pile foundations which I reasoned must have supported horizontal frames or platforms onto which the houses were originally secured.
After exploring the site and finding nothing else of significance I returned to the hut and pondered the painting some more. At the time I assumed the scene it depicted was from 1988 - the date on the painting - but was it? According to official accounts the settlement was abandoned in the 1950s as a consequence of the Canadian Government's Resettlement programmes (very soon after the publication of the 1953 Fisheries report - see that page of the Blog). That's fairly consistent with data on the genealogy website, 'Familysearch' which indicates the last death at Cape La Hune was that of John Ricketts in 1964. John's death does at Cape La Hune does though suggest that a few hardy individuals stayed on into the 1960s and possibly longer. Was A. Dominie one of them? John's passing must have been particularly poignant events for those leaving their homes of many years for the last time. His demise marked not only his own end, but the death of the settlement which had been his home and that of his family and friends for years and generations.
If you're reading this and are related to John or his descendants, please do get in touch through the Contacts page.
Had the buildings survived more or less intact over the 20-30 years between the final abandonment in the 1960s and early one morning in 1988, when artist Dominie sat down on the hill overlooking the settlement and started to paint? Perhaps by then many of the buildings were already in ruins or perhaps one of the hurricane strength storms that lash the coast from time, was particularly vicious and destroyed the abandoned settlement in one remorseless onslaught? I'll be looking into this further as I progress my research, but if anyone has any thoughts or information on the matter I would be grateful to hear from them. Once again please do get in touch via the Contacts page.
It's noticeable that there are no people or any animals or boats in the painting, which suggests to me that the artist captured the scene as it was in 1988 or at least, before the settlement had been completely destroyed by the elements. If the painting had been composed entirely from memory, I think the artist would have represented more of a living scene.
If I'm right about that, it must also be the case that the buildings were not relocated as part of the resettlement process, but were destroyed by the elements over the years.
As I continued to gaze at the painting I decided that the owner of the hut was either the artist or had commissioned the painting from a relative or friend and that it was painted or commissioned as the result of deep longing, love and nostalgia for the place. My curiosity rose further. What was the story behind the painting? Who was the Artist? Who was the owner of the hut?
I left with these and other as yet ill-formed questions pecking away at the back of my mind. I was sorely tempted to take the painting with me, but left it and and everything else in the hut just as I had found it.
Some days later I visited the village of Francois a few miles further east and talked to the shopkeeper there about my visit to Cape La Hune. "Was there anyone in Francois from Cape La Hune" I asked? There used to be until a few years ago she replied and she told me the name as well, but like a fool I didn't make a note of it and have forgotten what it was. I do remember however, that she told me that the old man had a deep affection for Cape La Hune and used to visit there. So, maybe he was the owner of the hut? Maybe his increasing age finally prevented him from visiting and so the hut fell into disrepair?
Since arriving home I've tried to track down the artist, but without success. Families with the surname "Dominie" and its variant, "Dominey" certainly lived in Cape La Hune but, I have not yet found the mysterious artist, 'A Dominie'
Do you know anything about the hut, its owner or the artist or the Dominie family? If so, I'd love to hear from you. Please do get in touch using the contact page
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