Artist Gertrude Kearns, left, Brock University President Jack Lightstone and patron Kathryn Langley Hope were on hand Friday Oct. 15 for the unveiling of Kearns’ striking portraits of War of 1812 heroes Chief Tecumseh and Maj.-Gen. Sir Isaac Brock. The paintings will remain at the University for up to three years while renovations are being done at the Royal Canadian Military Institute in Toronto.

Brock University will house portraits of Chief Tecumseh and General Isaac Brock on loan from the Royal Canadian Military Institute for about three years while the Institute undergoes extensive renovations.

The portraits were unveiled today at an event that took place in the lobby of the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre.

Under the patronage of Kathryn Langley Hope, the Royal Canadian Military Institute in Toronto commissioned the portraits by Canadian war artist Gertrude Kearns. Painted over a period of two years from 2007 to 2008, they were originally presented to the Institute in October 2008.

“Depicting these two expansive individuals was a journey,” said Kearns during her symposium presentation, which took place before the portraits were officially unveiled at Brock.

Located in the Thistle Complex corridor, across from the Centre for the Arts box office, the portraits will be on permanent public display for all to see during their stay at the university.

“These paintings are at the corner of the busiest corridors of this university,” said President Jack Lightsone at the unveiling ceremony. “It is a great privilege for us to be able to have our students and many other visitors to our campus see these portraits on a regular basis. So they will get a lot of exposure.”

“We hope the paintings being here at Brock will lead to greater outreach with both our American cousins and the aboriginal communities,” said Langley Hope. “So often in our lives we wish to have that wonderful confluence of our wishes, our hopes and our actions. These paintings represent to me such an opportunity.”