Lord Dal exhibition coming to Dal

Ninth Earl of Dalhousie with his dogs Bosto and Yarrow, circa 1816.

It’s a natural fit: an exhibition of works commissioned in the early 19th-century by George Ramsay, ninth Earl of Dalhousie, and the university he founded in 1818.

But Lord Dalhousie: Patron and Collector, organized by the National Gallery of Canada, was actually slated to open last spring at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. That is, until heavy rains and ground-water seepage forced the provincial gallery to cancel.

“I happened to be working late and I was getting ready to leave when the phone rang,” recalls Peter Dykhuis, director of Dalhousie Art Gallery. “It was a call from someone at the travelling exhibitions part of the National Gallery. I simply said, ‘We’ll take it.’”

But if only it was so simple: the university gallery first had to prove it had the proper lighting, humidity controls and security measures in place to protect the valuable historical collection, which includes delicate watercolours, sketches, lithographs, models, architectural drawings, and objets d’art. With the National Gallery of Canada satisfied and the contract signed, Mr. Dykhuis is delighted to announce the exhibition will go on display January 15 and continue on view to March 7, 2010.

He says the exhibition is special, not just because of Dalhousie’s connection with George Ramsay, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (1816-1820) and Governor-in-Chief of British North America (until 1828), but because of the perspective it provides on early Halifax and the people who lived here.

“I feel the exhibition offers a very nuanced and full portrait of Lord Dalhousie,” he says. “Through the work he commissioned, we have this incredible record of Halifax and this tangible link to our past.”