In some paintings, artists plumb the depths of their imagination to create characters in others they paint real people. That's the case in one famous painting called The Spirit of ’76.
"He actually fought in the American Civil War and he painted it after he saw a parade through the town square. It's kind of an iconic image of American patriotism,” said Jeanette Langmann, president of the President of the Art Dealers Association of Canada.
The subject of the painting is well known to Winnipeg’s Gail Carruthers. It's her great-grandfather.
"He played the fife. He also played the flute. The flute was in my grandmother’s house for years,” she said.
The original painting, though, wasn't there. The father of the drummer boy in the picture bought it.
And Carruthers family may not have got close to it again were it not for some Carnation evaporated milk. In the early 1970s, the company held a promotion.
Send them 50 cents and a wrapper from a can of milk and they'd send you a print of the painting.
Carruthers missed the deadline and had to contact the company directly.
"I asked if I could have a picture because my great grandfather was the fife player. So mine arrived all rolled up. No creases,” she said.
She framed it and kept it for all these years - an unchanging link to her family’s past.
