Painting entitled “In the Rosses, County Donegal”

by Maurice Canning Wilks

This is the story of how this beautiful painting came to hang in the living room of our farmhouse near Duncan BC, Canada. I am Tim Mock, a cousin of Barry McKee.

Maurice Canning Wilks was a well-known Irish painter born in Belfast in 1910. He painted and exhibited throughout Ireland and abroad beginning at the age of 19. He is famous for his countryside scenes of Ireland, but especially of Donegal. Various websites today suggest that Wilk’s artwork came to North America via shows held in New York and Montreal, and from there to the Fine Art Department of the T. Eaton Company. Another site suggests that Wilk’s work was purchased at the Belfast office of T. Eaton Company, and from there imported to Canada for resale. We do not know which of these routes, or perhaps another, brought these paintings to Montreal, where they were acquired (or received) by my great uncle, Albert Waynes.

What I do know is how two beautiful oil paintings captured my attention when I would visit my great uncle and aunt for Sunday dinners in the Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario during the years I studied in Lindsay Ontario. Some years later, after Uncle Al and Aunt Kay passed away, I recall seeing this one painting again in my parent’s home in southern Ontario, a gift to my father, Ron Mock, for being an executor of their estates. Some years later I moved to Vancouver Island to pursue graduate studies (and decided to stay). When visiting my mother in her home I noticed that the painting which had held a prominent position in the living room, was in storage. I mentioned it to my Mother who suggested I take it home if I’d like to have it. Beyond my parents, I was the only one in our family who had the opportunity to know Uncle Al and Aunt Kay, due to living for several years close to their retirement home.

My wife Laurice (from a long lineage of artists) and I jumped at the opportunity to have this art work in our lives. From the beautiful Donegal countryside scene, the exquisite composition, to Wilk’s confident brush strokes, it is a treat to behold. If anyone can help us to locate the actual site of this painting, or shed more light on its history, we’d be quite grateful.

There is a Donegal/McKee/Mock connection from the past. When Ron Mock was a student, he spent one summer helping on the farm in Machar Township of his older sister and brother-in-law, Leta (Mock) and Bill McKee. The farm of Bill and Leta McKee was about a mile from the homestead of Bill’s father Andrew McKee. No doubt young Ron would visit Andrew during that summer. Did Andrew talk about his childhood in a Donegal Cottage similar to the one above?