House in August, 1969
Christopher Pratt, House in August, 1969, oil on board, 44.5 x 62.2 cm, Currier Museum of Art, New Hampshire
A solitary, saltbox-style house stands beneath a high summer sky—its clapboard siding warm with sunlight, its windows empty but watchful. The scene is spare, yet full of suggestion. House in August marks a shift in Christopher Pratt’s treatment of Newfoundland architecture—away from documentation, to seeing such buildings as containers of memory, symbols of survival, and portraits of emotional life. “The house [is] our first universe,” he once said.
Embodying Pratt’s hallmark clarity and discipline, House in August is art that doesn’t explain, but instead invites us to look closely and feel the weight of what’s been left unsaid. Its composition is carefully structured, its palette warm yet restrained. Even the omission of a doorknob speaks to Pratt’s instinct for visual balance—while also subtly signaling that this is not an invitation to enter. The house remains private, distant, and emotionally charged. In its solitude, the house becomes a kind of self-portrait: not of likeness, but of presence—private, poised, and attuned to the passing of time. Almost sentient. As Pratt’s son John put it, “It feels like a house staring back at a winter survived and ahead at yet another Autumn, but far enough from November to allow itself to believe that ‘next winter it will be different.’”
Christopher Pratt, Barn and Cellar: August 1939, 2005, oil on paper on board, 42.5 x 77.5cm, private collection.
This work also captures a defining element of Pratt’s vision. While many of his houses are rooted in recognizable places, House in August is not a portrait of a specific building. It is an idea made visual—an homage to what Pratt described as “the Newfoundland vernacular.” As such, it belongs to a broader group of paintings, including Barn and Cellar, August 1939, 2002, and his views of his own home in Salmonier, such as Spring at My Place, 1985. These take their lead from House and Barn, 1962, which was inspired by a dream he had of “the archetypal house” (and of which he said, “I’ve been painting it ever since”). All these works reflect Pratt’s lifelong interest in distilled, imagined forms. Though they depict different locations, these houses share a quiet, reflective quality. They change with the light and seasons, but always hold a sense of stillness. They resist narrative, instead becoming images of presence and attention.
In a 2010 journal entry, Pratt captured what these houses meant to him—not as personal memories, but as emotional mirrors: “I still notice the look of abandoned ‘traditional’ Newfoundland houses.… There is a poignancy about them – their settings and circumstances.… They resonate: not with my own, personal history…but autobiographically: I feel as disconnected from the present as they appear.… They could be self-portraits.”
Gallery
Christopher Pratt, Gros Morne (At Portland Creek), 1960, oil on Plywood, 91 x 91.5 cm, The Rooms, St. John’s.
Christopher Pratt, Gros Morne (At Portland Creek), 1961, serigraph on paper (working proof), 42 x 75.2 cm, The Rooms, St. John’s
Christopher Pratt, Woman at a Dresser, 1964, oil on hardboard, 67.2 x 77.5 cm, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario
Christopher Pratt, The Lynx, 1965, Serigraph on paper, 51.8 x 76.2 cm, The Rooms, St. John’s
Christopher Pratt, House in August, 1969, oil on board, 44.5 x 62.2 cm, Currier Museum of Art, New Hampshire
Christopher Pratt, Institution, 1973, oil on Masonite, 76.2 x 76.2 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Christopher Pratt, Spring at My Place, 1985, serigraph, 50.6 x 95.7 cm, The Rooms, St. John’s
Christopher Pratt, Christmas Eve at 12 O’Clock, 1995, lithograph on paper (A/P VI), 25.8 x 28.5 cm, The Rooms, St. John’s
Christopher Pratt, Deer Lake: Junction Brook Memorial, 1999, oil on canvas, 114.5 x 305 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Christopher Pratt, Driving to Venus: On the Burgeo Road, 2000, oil on hardboard, 101.6 x 165.1 cm, Private collection
Christopher Pratt, After the Cold War: Argentia Approach, 2008, oil on canvas, 152.4 x 177.8 cm, Private collection
From left to right: Christopher Pratt, Winter Suite 1: West Fall Evening, 2009, oil on board, 91.4 x 104.1 cm, private collection; Christopher Pratt, Winter Suite 2: North Winter Night, 2009, oil on board, 91.4 x 104.1 cm, private collection; Christopher Pratt, Winter Suite 3: East Spring Morning, 2009, oil on board, 91.4 x 104.1 cm, private collection; Christopher Pratt, Summer 1/1 4: South Summer Noon, 2009, oil on board, 91.4 x 104.1 cm, private collection.