Robert Pope Archive

This illustration for the short story, “Saint-Aurèle-de-Gifford” by David W. Henderson, was published in the literary magazine, Canadian Forum, in June 1991. The story concerns the conflict between a small town doctor and an unconventional faith healer. Fire, murder and miracles are introduced, though

The funeral takes place in winter. Mourners wear dark heavy clothing, which looks even darker against the snow. The gray silhouette of the Victoria General Hospital is visible in the background. Each mourner reacts in a different way. The man on the

Robert had used an elevator in a painting from 1985, Exit, to suggests the up and downs of a relationship between a man and a woman. He found the metaphor of ascending and descending worked just as well for patients who experience frequent

The incongruous gargoyle in a train station turns New York into Gotham City, a modern but edgy metropolis whose mixed signals and confusing signs channel energy in unexpected directions. The gargoyle may be based on a figure from the Trinity Building

This illustration, influenced by Leonardo’s Annunciation, was featured in one of Robert’s hand-crafted Christmas cards. Robert had a life-long fascination with Leonardo da Vinci, in part because of da Vinci’s dual interest in art and science. In university, Robert had to choose

This image was inspired by the film, Field of Dreams, 1989, adopted from W.P. Kinsella’s Magic Realist novel Shoeless Joe, 1982. In this watercolour version, the crutch lies before a field of wheat. The acrylic on canvas version uses a

This image can be read on two levels. On a realist level, a church choir visits a patient who reaches across his hospital bed toward them. On a more fantastic level, a patient, nearing death or at a pivotal moment

Robert was interested in popular story-telling and folklore, so ghosts and supernatural elements appear throughout his work, though he becomes more sophisticated in their treatment in his later work. The cemetery is located in Mount Denson with the Avon River visible