Massey Medal

1980 Winner - Maurice Haycock

Remembering an Arctic artist
Maurice Haycock was a true Renaissance man: an internationally respected mineralogist, a classical musician and Canada’s most travelled Arctic artist — the first to have painted at the North Pole.

Haycock, an RCGS Massey medallist who died in 1988 at the age of 88, was also a cultural historian with a singular passion for documenting historic sites in the North. Compiled by his daughter Kathy Haycock, On Site With Maurice Haycock: Artist of the Arctic is a new book featuring his art and writings on notable cairns, gravesites and ancient villages.

Kathy started working on her father’s manuscript in 2003, when her home was razed by fire. The manuscript and the paintings, photographs and diaries that were in her possession were destroyed.

“About a year after the fire,” she says, “I was talking with another artist about my father’s legacy and how important it was to let people know about him. So much was lost in the fire. It was kind of urgent that I do something.”

Fortunately, Kathy’s sister found one of their father’s earlier manuscripts and supplied paintings and photos from her own collection to complete the project. For more on the book, visit www.haycock.ca.

— Monique Roy-Sole