Jefferys, C.W. (1907) - Wheat Stacks on the Prairies [Oil on canvas] ©Government of Ontario Art Collection, Archives of Ontario
In the 1920s, the Department of Education embarked on a project to revise the history textbooks. C.W. Jefferys, a historical illustrator, accomplished landscape painter and muralist, was commissioned to illustrate the texts. The majority of Jefferys' historical drawings and watercolours were produced during the 1920s as illustrations for public and secondary school history textbooks.
One of his major works, Wheat Stacks on the Prairies, was acquired for the Ontario Collection in 1912 shows the influence of impressionism. It was purchased from the Ontario Society of Artist’s exhibition by the Education Department Selection Committee. Painted during, or on the basis of, sketches made in the course of Jeffery’s first trip to the Qu’Appelle valley of Saskatchewan in 1907. It is part of a series of prairie harvesting scenes in Manitoba and Saskatchewan between 1906 and 1911.