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Painting on Wood

A thin cross-section of a tree painted with a prisoner of war camp scene with an open field in the forefront. It depicts three log buildings amidst a forest.

Collection of Joan Scott, Port Rowan, Ontario

Lumber Camp, Northern Ontario, paint on wood, 19.3 x 18.8 x 1.8 cm, Second World War

This painting is by an unknown German prisoner of war. Approximately 34,000 members of the German military were imprisoned in POW camps across Canada during the Second World War. This prisoner was in a camp in Gravenhurst, Ontario and traded this painting with a guard, Edwin Peall, for cigarettes. Many German prisoners worked on farms or in lumber camps; this image depicts an isolated lumber camp in northern Ontario. Peall was a First World War veteran who signed up in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan on December 25, 1915 and was wounded at Vimy Ridge in April 1917. He volunteered in 1942 to serve in the Veterans Guard of Canada.