Thursday 18 June 2026--Joseph Oppenheimer (1876-1966) was a German artist, mainly of portraits, who had footprints in Berlin, London, and Montreal. He was a young contemporary and acquaintance of John Singer Sargent and James Whistler. He does not seem to have been related to the famous physicist, Robert; Oppenheimer is apparently a common German Jewish name. Joseph already had links to London when Hitler was elected chancellor in 1933, at which time he left Germany for good. His portraiture was noted for blending an arresting capture of his subjects' features with a slightly more impressionistic take on their clothing and surroundings. Among his subjects were Albert Einstein, Harold MacMillan, Otto Von Bismarck, and dozens of other prominent personages in the worlds of politics and the arts.

Oppenheimer's daughter, Eva Prager (1912-2010), was also a talented artist, although not, in my opinion, in her father's class. Born in Berlin, she started her career in London, and made her mark as a commercial artist in Montreal. She also painted portraits of prominent Canadians like Pierre Trudeau, astronaut Marc Garneau, and journalist Pierre Berton, as well as such diverse personalities as Rudolf Nureyev, Yehudi Menuhin, and Linus Pauling.

Eva's son, Vincent, was a noted maritime lawyer in Montreal. In 1995 he purchased Dayspring, the largest house in St Andrews. Dayspring had been built in 1928 for American businessman Lewis Egerton Smoot, brother of the co-author of the Smoot-Hawley Act. It was sold to James Dunn, owner of the Algoma Steel company, in 1947. Dunn's widow married Lord Beaverbrook, whom she also outlived. She lived at Dayspring until 1990, when she left St Andrews in a snit over expansion of the nearby Algonquin Hotel. Vincent Prager lived in the house until 2011, when he created the Oppenheimer-Prager Museum at Dayspring for the purpose of displaying his mother's and grandfather's art. And it is there I am heading today.

I start out on the Van Horne Trail again. Past the upper section of Water Street, the trail forks. The path to the left runs into Cove Street at Katy's Cove Beach, below the museum. A loop around brings me to the front door. I'm the only guest at the moment--a couple come in behind me shortly--and a young fellow gives me the tour, supervised by a docent who tells me the lad is starting his first season as a guide. He gets points for enthusiasm. [Photography is not permitted--you can see some of Oppenheimer's and Prager's works at the website linked above.]

I spend the requisite hour, then go up to the Algonquin, which had so offended Lady Beaverbrook that she left town. I'm thinking to have a pint at the hotel's Right Whale Pub, but it's not open in the afternoon, this early in the season. Down into town I stroll, in a light drizzle. I have dinner at Seasons by the Sea again, and pints at the brewery, accompanied by more World Cup action.