HomeMy WebLinkAboutX2024-029-043Charles Fothergill
(1782-1840)
Pickering has had notable
visual artists connected with
its history almost from the
beginning. The first artist-in-
residence was Charles
Fothergill who resided in
Pickering during the 1830s,
and whom we have
encountered often in this
publication.1 So far as we
know Fothergill painted no
scenes of Pickering Township.
Rather, he was best known
for his landscapes of Port
Hope, which in his day was
known as either Smith’s
Creek or Toronto, and for his
Natural History subjects.
However, during those years
he did participate in a
provincial exhibition. The
first exhibition of art in what
is now Ontario took place in
July 1834 at the Legislative
Building on Front Street West
in York (Toronto). It was
sponsored by the Society of
Artists and Amateurs.2
Fothergill was one of the
exhibitors, contributing older
works he had painted in
Yorkshire and Scotland.
One of these paintings was
White-fronted Tern.
In a letter to Charles Daly,
the curator of the show,
Fothergill named another
painting in the show simply
as Birdcatching. This is
probably a painting entitled
Rocks on the North-Western
Coast of the Sublime Fula
With Bird-Catching. The
original of this painting no
longer exists as far as we
know, but the Fisher Library
has a copy made by
Fothergill’s sister, Elizabeth.
The very first work of art
Fothergill produced in the
New World was of a Red-
breasted Nuthatch, which
he painted mid-stream in the
St. Lawrence River, on 27
August 1816, before he
landed in Quebec City.
He named it the
St Lawrence Titmouse.3
After arriving in Upper
Canada in 1817, Fothergill
settled in Smith’s Creek and
over the next 2 years painted
several scenes of his new
home in the village. This
View of Port Hope from C.
Fothergill’s Parlour Window
shows a number of industrial
buildings, including his own
distillery and brewery, office
and store. There are two
copies of this work, one in
the Royal Ontario Museum
(ROM) and one in a private
collection.
The Pickering Museum
Village has a number of
works of art related to
Charles Fothergill. These are
all thanks to a donation from
Andrew Schell, a descendant
of Fothergill’s. The works
WHAT’S INSIDE
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PATHMASTERPICKERING TOWNSHIP HISTORICAL SOCIETY
SUMMER EDITION VOLUME 28 NUMBERS 1 & 2
by John W. Sabean
c Pickering has a long and vital
history in the visual arts dating
all the way back to 1834. Some
of the artists were proficient
enough to have their works
hang in such institutions as the
Art Gallery of Ontario or the
National Gallery of Canada.
Even the amateur artists profiled
here are worthy of note.
A Short History
of Visual Art in
PickeringC C
RO
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Fothergill, White-fronted
Tern (Royal Ontario
Museum) (ROM).
are: Portrait of Charles
Fothergill; Portrait of Elizabeth
Richardson Fothergill (Charles’
wife); Portrait of Caroline
Fothergill McGillivray (Charles
and Elizabeth’s daughter);
Portrait of George McGillivray
(Caroline’s husband); Portrait of
Catherine Maclaren (Caroline
and George McGllivray’s
daughter); Razorbacks; Greater
Yellowlegs; and Ackee.
There are two copies of the
Portrait of Charles Fothergill:
the other owned by the Royal
Ontario Museum. The best
information suggests that the
original was painted in 1834 by
Grove Sheldon Gilbert (1805-
1885) and the copy by Florence
H. McGillivray sometime in
the 1890s—but which is which
is not known.4
In 1836, Fothergill, with the
aid of Dr William Rees, a surgeon
and meteorologist from York,
and William (Tiger) Dunlop,
army officer, surgeon and official
with the Canada Company,
proposed the establishment of a
Lyceum of Natural History and
the Fine Arts. In support, Sir
Francis Bond Head promised “a
piece of ground on the Military
Reserve behind the Garrison, and
near Farr’s Brewery, containing a
little more than two acres”.5
Plans for the Lyceum were
ambitious. It was to comprise a
museum of natural
and civil history, an art gallery,
a botanical garden and
a zoological garden. Henry
Scadding cited a prospectus that
described a picture gallery “for
subjects connected with Science
and Portraits of individuals” and
did not omit “Indian antiquities,
[sic] arms, dresses, utensils and
whatever might illustrate and
make permanent all that we can
know of the Aborigines of this
great Continent, a people who
are rapidly passing away and
becoming as though they had
never been.”6 The building that
would house the museum and art
gallery was to be patterned after
the Parthenon of Athens.
When Fothergill first left the
old country for Canada it was
with the intention of compiling a
natural history of the British
Empire. In order to record, study
and illustrate the fauna of North
America, Fothergill collected and
had stuffed specimens of as many
species as he could find. In his
journals, he often spoke of
shooting birds and mammals for
the purpose of identification.
These he would have preserved
and added to a growing
collection. Beyond that he would
purchase stuffed specimens from
a number of different sources.
The collection was housed at first
at his home in Pickering
Township. In his Statistical
Account of Upper Canada,
Thomas Rolph recorded a visit he
made to Fothergill in Pickering.
“The Township of Pickering”, he
said, “is well settled & contains
some fine land and well watered.
Mr Fothergill has an extensive &
most valuable museum of natural
curiosities, at his residence in the
township, which he has collected
with great industry & the most
refined taste. He is a person of
superior acquirements &
ardently devoted to the pursuit
of natural philosophy”.7
One such stuffed bird, a
Passenger Pigeon, is still to be
found at the ROM. Artist Barry
Kent MacKay has painted the
Passenger Pigeon using
Fothergill’s specimen as a guide.
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Fothergill, St Lawrence Titmouse
(Red-breasted Nuthatch)
(TFRBL).
Passenger Pigeon, specimen
by Fothergill, artwork
by Barry Kent MacKay (BKM).
Grove Sheldon Gilbert or
Florence H. McGillivray, Portrait
of Charles Fothergill, Pickering
Museum Village (PMV).
Fothergill, View of Port Hope from C. Fothergill’s Parlour Window
(Private Collection).
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Razorbacks (PMV)
Achee (PMV)
Greater Yellowlegs (PMV)
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Elizabeth Fothergill, after Charles
Fothergill, Rocks on the North-
Western Coast of the Sublime Fula
With Birdcatching, Thomas Fisher
Rare Book Library (TFRBL).
ebenezer birrell
(1800-1888)
Ebenezer Birrell arrived in
Pickering Township in 1834, and
thus was living here three years
before Fothergill moved away.8
Although Fothergill sought out
other artists we do not know if
the two ever met. Like Fothergill,
Birrell painted many canvases
before he came to Canada. All of
his known paintings in Scotland
fall into one of three themes:
landscapes, portraits, and Biblical
scenes. Pass of Tummel, Maria
Regina Scotorum, and The
Raising of Lazarus are examples.
Birrell was born on 31 March
1800, in Kinrosshire, Scotland.
His father, John Birrell was a
manufacturer of parchment and
vellum, a business in which the
family had been engaged for over
150 years in the Kinross area.
Ebenezer was trained in the
parchment business as a child
and appeared to have a flair for it.
But as a younger son, he would
not inherit the business and
therefore had to look elsewhere
for his future. He trained,
therefore, as a surveyor and
practised that trade from at least
the age of twenty. A number of
his survey plans and sketches,
from 1820 to 1834, are preserved
in various repositories in
Scotland, such as this Survey
Plan of Peat Hill.
While still a young man
Birrell began to paint in oils.
Whether he was self-taught or
professionally-taught is not
presently known. However, he
did much of his learning through
the practise of copying the
artworks of the “masters”. The
Raising of Lazarus, painted in
1825, was copied from a work by
Benjamin Robert Haydon, a
painting that now hangs at the
Tate Gallery in London. Birrell’s
painting is at the Art Gallery of
Hamilton. Kilaverik Castle
(Private Collection) is a copy of a
work by J.W. Williams, of
Edinburgh —painted in 1822,
and copied by Birrell in 1825.
From evidence based upon
his diaries, among paintings that
Birrell is thought to have copied
(but not now extant) are:
The Right Honourable William
Windham, by Sir Joshua
Reynolds; Portrait of an Old
Jew, 1654, by Rembrandt van
Rijn; Gevartius [Cornelis van
der Geest], by Sir Anthony van
Dyck; Giulia Gonzaga, 16th C,
by Sebastiano del Piombo;
Portrait of a Lady, c1533, by
Agnolo Bronzino; and
Covenanter’s Wedding, 1842,
by Alexander Johnston.
In 1834, Ebenezer Birrell left
Scotland for Upper Canada.
Once in Montreal he headed
directly to Pickering Township,
where, on the 3rd of October he
purchased the south half of Lot 9,
Concession 7. He would add
other purchases at a later time.
The Illustrated Historical Atlas of
the County of Ontario
commented: “When Mr. Birrell
settled in 1834 there were few
settlers back of the 6th
Concession, and even that line
was but partially opened.”9
Ebenezer Birrell was one of
the chief architects of Pickering’s
social and cultural history in the
nineteenth century. Apart from
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Birrell, Pass of Tummel
(Private Collection).
Birrell, Maria Regina Scotorum
(Private Collection).
Birrell, Self Portrait and Christina
(Private Collection).
Birrell, Good Friends (AGH).
Birrell, The Raising of Lazarus
(Art Gallery of Hamilton) (AGH).
Birrell, Survey Plan of Peat Hill, 1821
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operating a successful farm he
became involved in just about
every aspect of township affairs
apart from politics. He was a
Lieutenant Colonel in the Third
Battalion of the Ontario Militia,
a founder and first President of
the Ontario County Agricultural
Society, the Local Superintendent
of schools, a Justice of the Peace,
a Director of the Greenwood
Mechanics’ Institute (the local
library), and an Elder and Session
Clerk of the Presbyterian Church.
Despite all this activity, Birrell
also found time to indulge once
again in art. Our knowledge of
Ebenezer Birrell’s paintings comes
by way of known existing works
and references he made in various
journals. I have immediate
knowledge of 14 paintings: the
Art Gallery of Hamilton has three
(Good Friends, The Raising of
Lazarus, and Portrait of a Man);
the Art Gallery of Windsor has
one (The Village of Emmaus);
and ten are in various private
collections (Loch Achray,
Taymouth Castle, Pass of
Tummel, Maria Regina Scotorum,
Samuel and Eli, Kilaverick
[Caerlaverock]10 Castle, Burleigh
[Caerlaverock] Castle, Powmill,
Arnot Tower, and Self and
Christina. In addition, I am
aware of two other paintings
recently sold at the auction
houses of Joyner and Ritchies
(Break in the Winter Clouds
and Portrait of a Lady).
Based on the evidence from the
journals, Birrell’s artistic output
exceeded 50 works.
After mid-century when
township, county, and provincial
fairs and exhibitions were
established, Birrell began to enter
his artwork into competition. In
most cases he took the first, and
often also the second, prize for
oil paintings, and occasionally for
watercolours. In one case, he also
took the prize for best picture
frame. The exhibitions for which
we have a record are: the Upper
Canada Provincial Exhibitions,
1856 and 1857; the Ontario
County Fairs, 1855, 1857-1860,
1862, 1863, 1876, and 1882; and
the Pickering Township Fairs,
1857-1859, 1861, 1862.
He also served as an art judge:
for the Upper Canada Art
Council, 1854 and the Upper
Canada Provincial Exhibitions,
1854, 1855; the Ontario County
Fair, 1871, 1874, 1882; and the
Pickering Fair, 1879. At the
Upper Canada Provincial
Exhibition in 1856 he was also a
judge in metals and in pottery.
We know of at least 2
paintings Birrell did after settling
in Pickering: Self and Christina
(private collection), c1852, and
Good Friends. That he did others
is suggested by the list above, e.g.,
Jessie & Tinnie, and by the
many references in his Journals to
paints that he sought for his pallet.
His painting, Good Friends
(c1860), depicts a view of
his farm in Pickering Township
and livestock. The painting
is now owned by the Art Gallery
of Hamilton and is considered by
curators the most popular of the
artworks in the gallery’s
collection, and some years
ago was used in their
membership form.
Good Friends has been
exhibited in recent years across
Canada, and has been
commented on by a number of
art historians and critics. One
such critic wrote: “[Good Friends
was] a remarkable oil-on-canvas
landscape by Ebenezer Birrell, a
Scottish immigrant who came to
Pickering, Ontario in 1834.
Under a brilliant sun breaking
from behind a cloud at the top of
the painting, surrounded by trees
painted in the richest rusts,
oranges and deep greens of
Ontario’s early autumn, and
contained by a well-built pioneer
rail fence, stands a magnificent
herd of horses and cattle, their
coats gleaming in the sunlight.
Sheep graze in the middle
distance with a goat and a flock
of geese at the side.”11
Art historian, J. Russell
Harper, wrote: “Ebenezer Birrell,
a Scottish immigrant who had
settled near Pickering in 1834,
was a very skilled amateur. He
had been a prominent local
farmer at Pickering for many
years and was a citizen with a
sense of community
responsibility…. His naïve
masterpiece is an oil painting of
his livestock grazing in the
pasture surrounded by woods
made lively with autumn colour
and in their reds echoing the rich
reddish browns of his cattle and
horses. With that touch of placid
sentiment which seemingly
impregnated farm life at the time,
he called his canvas ‘Good
Friends’”.12
hannah Caroline
Parnham barClay
(1818-1904)
Hannah Caroline Parnham was
born on 8 November 1818, in
Chelsea, London, England.13 She
attended a school for young
ladies in England where she
learned to paint in watercolours.
At the age of 13 she emigrated
with her family from
Nottinghamshire and landed in
York, Upper Canada on 25 June
1832. Her mother died the next
day and Hannah came to
Pickering Township to live with
the family of the Rev. George
Barclay. On 17 September 1837,
she married James Barclay, the
son of George Barclay and Janet
Tullis. Exactly three months later
her brother-in-law, George
Barclay, Jr., was arrested as a
rebel after the fight at
Montgomery’s Tavern and
Barclay, After Lucius O’Brien
(Private Collection).
Lucius O’Brien, Untitled
(Private Collection).
Portrait of Hannah Barclay
(Private Collection).
AG
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AGH Membership Form.
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thrown into prison. Whether
James was implicated in the
Rebellion of 1837 we do not
know, but the whole family was
Non-Conformist in religion and
Radical in politics and therefore
suspect to some degree.
James and Hannah Barclay
farmed Lot 14, Concession 6
(near the hamlet of Brougham).
She and her husband were among
the founders of the Disciples
Church in Pickering. By 1861,
they were living and farming in
East Whitby Township near
Brooklin, and by 1869, they had
moved to Oshawa, where they
lived on Church Street. In that
year James died.
Hannah died on 23 January
1904, in Whitby, Ontario, at the
age of 85, and was buried in
Oshawa Union Cemetery,
Oshawa, Ontario.
We know of only a handful
of paintings by Hannah Barclay,
all of which are in the hands of
descendants. Nor do we know
how she developed as an artist.
Did she actually take lessons
from Lucius O’Brien, or did
she just copy his work as an
exercise in learning?
The graphite sketch of a
Woman on a Donkey was given to
the Pickering Township Historical
Society by a Barclay relative.
John Powell hunt
(1854-1932)
John Powell Hunt was never a
resident of Pickering, but he was
commissioned to paint the
portrait of John Miller of Thistle
Ha’. Hunt was born in St. Mary’s,
Ontario, in 1854.14 He painted
landscapes in and around the
London area, but also painted
still life and portrait subjects. In
1875, he moved to London to
study with William Lees Judson,
where he met Paul Peel, another
young student. Later he studied
in Toronto under John Colin
Forbes. He taught art classes in
London, exhibited at the Royal
Canadian Academy of Arts in
1882 and 1913, and painted a
series of portraits of London’s
mayors. His work is held in the
permanent collection of the
London Art Gallery.
southworth (Fl. C1880?)
Southworth is known to us only
by way of a painting he did of the
Willson house on Whitevale
Road. We have not even been
able to find a first name for him.
He may have been an itinerant
painter traveling to wherever he
could find a commission.
James alonzo hilts
(Fl. C1900)
J.A. Hilts was a member of a
prominent Pickering family. He
was a house painter and
decorator and owned a paint
shop in Pickering Village. At one
point in his life he resided for a
while in Hawaii where he was
engaged in decorating the throne
room in the queen’s palace in
Honolulu. It is believed that he was
the artist who painted the
Northwest, a stonehooker, owned
and operated by Capt. James Hilts.
thomas ireson (Fl. 1883)
All we know of Thomas Ireson is
from an item in the Pickering
News from 1883.15 He is said to
be an artist living in Liverpool
Market. He had painted the
portrait of “the celebrated
running mare ‘Lady Hanlan’”,
owned by Dan O’Leary of
Pickering Village.
edward sCroPe shraPnel,
rCa (1845-1920)
Edward Scrope Shrapnel was
born in Wiltshire, England and
christened at Holy Trinity
Church, Gosport, Hampshire on
2 February 1845.16 He was the
son of Henry Needham Scrope
Shrapnel and Louisa Sarah
Joisiffe. His grandfather, Henry
Shrapnel, was the inventor of the
“Shrapnel Shell”. In 1871, he
emigrated to Canada with his
family and settled in Orillia,
where his father served as an
immigrant agent. About twenty
years later he moved to Whitby
where he taught art at the
Ontario Ladies College for a
period of five tears. He also
taught at Pickering College from
1883 to 1885.
He was known for his
landscapes, many of which were
Shrapnel, River Landscape
(Private Collection)
Shrapnel, Hunters
(Private Collection)
Barclay, Log Cabin
(Private Collection).
Barclay, Woman on Donkey
(Pickering Public Library) (PPL)
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Southworth, The Willson House
(Private Collection).
Willson House Ph
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Hunt, Portrait of John Miller
(Private Collection).
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of Muskoka, and for his genre
scenes. In 1898, he provided the
illustrations for Thomas Conant’s
Upper Canada Sketches, three of
which are shown here.
In 1889, Shrapnel moved to
Victoria, B.C., where he spent the
remaining 31 years of his life. He
exhibited in the first annual
exhibition of the Vancouver Art
Association, October 1890, and
was President of Victoria’s earliest
Art Association for 11 years.
FlorenCe helena
mCgillivray (1864-1938)
Florence McGillivray was born
in Whitby a few years after her
parents, George McGillivray and
Caroline Fothergill moved to
Whitby from Pickering
Township.17 She was the
granddaughter of Charles
Fothergill. She received her
initial training in art in Toronto
under William Cruikshank,
Frederick Marlett Bell-Smith,
John W.I. Forster, Lucius O’Brien,
and Farquhar McGillivray
Knowles, all members or
associate members of the Royal
Canadian Academy.
One of her first jobs was as
art instructor at Pickering College
in the 1890s, under the
principalship of W.P. Firth
(when Pickering College
was in Pickering Township).18
She also had a long-term
connection with the Ontario
Ladies College in Whitby.
When nearly 50 years of age
she went off to Paris to continue
her study of painting. There her
instructors were Lucien Simon
and Emile René Ménard. She was
greatly influenced by the French
Impressionists and the Fauvists.
Her work did not go unnoticed in
France as she took part in an
exhibition at the Salon des
Beaux Arts, and was elected
president of the International
Art Union, all within a year of
her arrival in Paris.
When McGillivray returned to
Canada in 1914, she brought
with her a new vision for painting
the Canadian landscape. She was
one of the first “to discover the
aesthetic possibilities of the
northern Ontario landscape,”
and in doing so anticipated the
work of Tom Thomson, whom
she met in 1917, and upon
whom she may have had some
direct influence.19
Shortly after her return from
Europe, McGillivray had two of
her paintings chosen by the Royal
Canadian Academy for their
annual exhibition in 1914, and
one of the two was purchased by
the National Gallery. A few years
McGillivray, Midwinter
Dunbarton, Ontario (National
Gallery of Canada).
McGillivray, Portrait of Elizabeth
Richardson Fothergill (PMV).
McGillivray, Portrait of
Joshua Richardson (PMV).
McGillivray, Portrait of Caroline
Fothergill McGillivray (PMV).
McGillivray, Winter at Rosebank
(AGH)
McGillivray, Mouth of Rouge
River (Private Collection)
McGillivray, Rouge River
(Private Collection)
Marion Long, Portrait of
Florence Helena McGillivray (AGO).
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McGillivray, Portrait of
George McGillivray (PMV).
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Shrapnel, Log Cabin
Shrapnel, Farewell Tavern
Shrapnel, Fenian Raid
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later she was admitted as a
member of the Ontario Society
of Artists. Today her works may
be found in the collections
of the National Gallery of
Canada, the Art Gallery of
Ontario, and the Art Gallery of
Hamilton, among others.
Although McGillivray
travelled widely, she also spent a
great deal of time in Whitby and
vicinity. Among her works are
several scenes of Pickering.
beers atlas (1877)
and PiCturesque Canada
(1882)
In the last quarter of the 19th
century there were some images
of Pickering that were
reproduced in books—many
from the Illustrated Historical
Atlas of Ontario County (Beers,
1877), and one from Picturesque
Canada (1882).20
tom thomson
(1877-1917)
Tom Thomson is an icon of the
Canadian art world.21 He was
born in Pickering Township, but
his sojourn here was a mere two
months. However, his roots go
deep into Pickering as his
grandparents were settlers here as
early as the 1830s. Tom was
named for his grandfather,
Thomas—known locally as
“Tam”—Thomson (1806-1875),
who emigrated from Scotland to
Upper Canada. In 1839, he
married Elizabeth Brodie and
they settled on Lot 14,
Concession 8, just east of the
village of Claremont. They had
one child, a son named John, who
was the father of the artist. John
moved his family north to Leith,
Ontario, just two months after
the birth of his youngest son.
Commercial art became Tom
Thomson’s livelihood, but
landscape painting was his road
to fame. As a commercial artist,
Thomson began to work for Grip
Limited about 1907. There he
was to meet most of the artists
who would later (in 1920) form
the Group of Seven.
In company with some of
them, and with other artists, he
began to travel into the
countryside to paint. In the
country around Toronto and in
places like Lake Scugog,
Thomson “first began painting
the themes which would
constitute the major part of his
oeuvre ….”22 In the spring of
1912, Thomson went to
Algonquin Park; he was to return
to this setting each of his
remaining years. The names of
Tom Thomson and Algonquin
Park have since become
inextricably linked, and it was
in Algonquin Park where he
drowned in 1917.
george thomson
(1868-1965)
Tom had an older brother George,
who was also a landscape painter,
and, but for the overwhelming
fame of his brother, George,
might be better known today.23
George Thomson was older than
Tom by nine years (and thus has
a better claim on Pickering as he
lived his first nine years in the
stone cottage set back from the
9th Concession Road). He ran a
business school in Seattle,
Washington, for a while, before
studying law. But art was to
claim him in the end. He studied
art at the Art Students’ League in
New York City, then moved to
New Haven, Connecticut, where
he lived and painted from 1918
to 1926. He exhibited his
paintings locally, but also by
1915, began to send some of his
work to Canada for exhibition.
In 1926, George Thomson
returned to Canada for good. He
became a member of the Ontario
Society of Artists and painted
landscapes especially in the
neighbourhood of the old
homestead near Georgian Bay.
Whitevale
Pickering Harbour
Toronto From Kingston Road
Birthplace of Tom
and George Thomson.
Tom Thomson
G. Thomson, Summer Beach (Private Collection).
Be
e
r
s
(
1
8
7
7
)
.
Be
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r
s
(
1
8
7
7
)
.
Ge
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M
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(
1
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)
.
Ph
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.
AG
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PT
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PT
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T. Thomson, Evening, Lake
Scugog (Art Gallery of Ontario;
AGO).
T. Thomson, Marsh, Lake Scugog
(AGO).
AG
O
8
bess housser harris
(1890-1969)
This painting is by Lawren Harris,
a leading member of the Group
of Seven, who, so far as I know,
never painted any of his
landscapes in Pickering Township.
He did however paint the portrait
of one of Pickering’s residents.
Bess Housser, née Larkin, who
married Frederick Broughton
Housser (1889-1936) in 1914. In
the 1920s, Fred was the financial
editor of the Toronto Daily Star,
and in 1926 he published the first
history of the Group of Seven: A
Canadian Art Movement.24
In 1915, the Houssers
purchased a home and property
on Lot 13, Concession 2, in
Pickering Village—the house is
now 456 Kingston Road West.
The Toronto directories have
no listings for the Houssers
between 1916 and 1919, but
from 1920 on they again show a
Toronto residence, but they did
not sell the Pickering residence
until May 1922.
Sometime early in 1920,
Harris painted Bess Housser’s
portrait. It was in that same year
that Harris and a number of his
artist friends formed the Group
of Seven and had their first
exhibition—in May at the Art
Gallery of Toronto. Portrait of
Bess (or, The Christian Scientist)
was one of three portraits he
exhibited in that first show. (The
portrait is now in the collection
of the Art Gallery of Ontario.)
Bess Housser, herself, took up
painting as a pastime early in the
1920s. She would join her friend
Doris Mills on painting
excursions and within two years
she and Mills were invited to
exhibit their work at the
Women’s Art Association. In
1926, the two women became
invited contributors to the Group
of Seven show at the Art Gallery
of Toronto, and shortly thereafter
Housser was chosen to travel to
England as part of a Canadian
exhibition at the Wembly show.
For several years in the 1920s,
Housser also conducted a
monthly column on art for the
Canadian Bookman. In 1930
her work was shown at the
Corcoran Gallery of Art in
Washington, D.C. In the 1930s
she became a member of the
Canadian Group of Painters.
In 1934, Bess Housser and
Lawren Harris divorced their
spouses and married each other.
Wherever the Harris’s moved to—
Hanover, New Hampshire; Santa
Fe, New Mexico; Vancouver they
quickly became the centre of the
arts communities in these places.
doris huestis mills sPeirs
(1894-1989)
During her Pickering years (1949-
1989), Doris Speirs, the former
Doris Mills, was a collector,
promoter and donor of Canadian
art.25 She was often consulted
about the art world of the 1920s
and 1930s, especially about the
Group of Seven, most of whose
members were her close friends,
and with whom she had
exhibited in shows between
1926 and 1931.
By 1949, Speirs was no longer
painting; her interests had turned
to ecology and ornithology,
where she carved out a
noteworthy second career. But in
the 1920s Doris Mills was an
amateur painter, one of a small
coterie of largely untrained,
freelance painters encouraged in
their efforts by the Group. Her
artistic career developed from her
acquaintance with several artists
in 1919. In the spring of that year
she rented several paintings from
J.E.H. MacDonald. When her
friends learned of this they
decided to follow suit, and thus
was born in November of that
year the “Circulating System” of
art rental, whereby Mills, Bess
Housser, Lucile Taylor (whose
portrait was also also painted by
Lawren Harris) and Mrs.
Kenneth Young rented for a year
12 paintings from such artists as
MacDonald, Harris, Arthur
Lismer, and A.Y. Jackson.26 Each
would keep three paintings on
Do
r
i
s
S
p
e
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r
s
Doris Speirs
Do
r
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s
S
p
e
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r
s
;
P
P
L
Housser, Portrait
of Doris Mills (PPL)
PP
LYulia Biriukova, Portrait
of Doris Mills (PPL).
PP
LMills, Oak Tree (PPL).
He
f
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F
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e
A
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A
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t
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H
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Harris, Day’s End
(Private Collection).
Bess Housser in front of her
Pickering Village home.
PT
H
S
Lawren Harris, Portrait of Bess
(AGO)
AG
O
9
their walls for three months, then
they would swap paintings until
by the end of the year each had
all 12 paintings in their homes
for a period. Then these paintings
would be returned to the artists
and 12 more paintings rented.
Note, that this was begun in
the year before the Group of
Seven was formed.
Studying the paintings hanging
on her walls, and watching several
of the artists at work in their
studios, by 1922 Mills felt she had
some understanding of how they
worked and decided to try her
own hand at painting. She
approached A.Y. Jackson who
told her what paints and materials
to purchase, and she set to work.
She painted in her own home
at first, painting what she saw
out her back window; then, in
the summer, she went on a few
field trips by herself. In the fall,
after her return, J.E.H.
MacDonald cleared out a storage
area in his own studio at the
Studio Building for her use.
Toward the end of that same year
she began some private lessons
under the tutelage of Fred Varley,
but these were abandoned after
about 12 lessons when Varley
moved to Winnipeg.
In the summer of 1925, Mills
had her first solo exhibition in
MacDonald’s studio. Later that
year, she and Bess Housser had a
joint exhibition at the Women’s
Art Association, and in 1926 they
were both invited contributors to
the Group of Seven exhibition at
the Art Gallery of Toronto.
Several authors (Joan Murray,
Maria Tippett, et al.) have
credited Mills with being a
pioneer in abstraction. Certainly,
her Woman of Revelation
appears to anticipate what her
friend Lawren Harris would do a
decade later.27
In the early 1970s, although
her main interests now lay
elsewhere, Mills, now Speirs, was
still very much connected to the
Canadian art world. She kept up
her awareness through
correspondence with her best
friend Bess Harris and her
husband Lawren. And, she had
four retrospective exhibitions of
her artwork. The Jerrold Morris
Gallery in Toronto and the
Toronto Heliconian Club held
exhibitions in 1970. The Robert
McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa
held both a retrospective of her
work and an exhibition of works
by others from her large
collection. Then, in 1976, 50
years after her first joint
exhibition at the Women’s Art
Association of Toronto, a
retrospective was held for her by
that same institution, and in the
same location.
Over the years, many young
artists found encouragement in
Mills/Speirs enthusiasm for their
work. Among these were Carl
Schaefer, Robert Bateman, Irene
Blogg, Robin Mackenzie, Barry
Kent MacKay, and Sheila Maki.
dorothy eddis glen
(1885-1977)
When Dorothy Glen was invited
by the Robert McLaughlin
Gallery in 1970 to hold a
retrospective of her artwork she
had been painting for over 65
years. In all that time, she
remained in the amateur ranks,
as art never became the primary
focus of her life. Nevertheless,
although a busy life kept her
from devoting more time to her
art, her output was prodigious.28
Dorothy Wyndham Eddis was
born in New South Wales,
Australia, in 1885. At the age of
about nine years she immigrated
with her family to Canada.
Shortly after 1900, she studied at
the Central Ontario School of Art
and Industrial Design, and then
went to New York City to
continue her artistic education.
However, for reasons not now
known, she returned to Toronto
to take up other interests. For the
next decade, her main focus was
on the poor social conditions of
the working class in Toronto. She
entered the University of Toronto
to study social science and
graduated with her degree in
1916. After graduation, she held
positions as a probation officer of
PP
L
Mills, Cedars in the Rouge Valley (PPL).
Do
r
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s
S
p
e
i
r
s
Mills, Bon Echo,
(Private Collection).
Eddis, Seated Woman (PPL).
PP
L
Mills, Portrait of Thoreau
MacDonald (PPL)
Do
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s
S
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s
;
A
G
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Woman of Revelation (AGO).
PP
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10
the Juvenile Court and as
secretary of the Big Sisters
Association. She put her art
training to good use by teaching
art to children in Toronto’s slums.
Eddis met and in 1919
married Andrew Glen an engineer
who had emigrated from
Scotland. In the fall of 1923 they
moved from Toronto to Pickering
Township, settling along
Whitevale Road, on Lot 19,
Concession 5. They farmed this
land for 50 years until their land
was expropriated by the
provincial government in 1974
for the proposed community
of Seaton. When not engaged in
farm work the Glens indulged
in some of their favourite
pastimes. For Dorothy that
meant painting, while Andrew
wrote a column for the Toronto
Star for most of the 1930s.
A local newspaper published
a review of Glen’s retrospective
exhibition at the McLaughlin
Gallery. “Many of the
watercolors displayed,” wrote
the reviewer, “were scenes on the
quiet farm where she resides—of
the stream that ripples through it,
of the trees and flowers, the
glowing colors of which are
transferred to her canvas.
Portraits in oils of an old man …
one of which won a special
award in art circles, is Mrs.
Glen’s favorite.”29 The reviewer
also noted that “At the turn of
the century Dorothy Glen, then a
slight girl about to begin her art
studies in New York, painted
Colbourne Lodge at High Park in
Toronto, in various aspects.
Recently the Toronto Historical
Society purchased six of her
paintings of the old structure,
and will be guided by them
for future restoration of
buildings that have long since
been demolished.”
Cleeve horne, rCa, osa
(1912-1998)
Born in Jamaica, Arthur Edward
Cleeve Horne came to Toronto
with his parents in 1913.30 By the
time he was 15 he already had a
sculpture exhibited at the Art
Gallery of Toronto and another
accepted by the Royal Canadian
Academy for the Academy’s
annual exhibition. He entered the
Ontario College of Art in 1930,
where he enrolled in the sculpture
course, but later switched to
painting, and graduated with the
degree A.O.C.A., in 1934. As a
student, he won the Lieut.
Governor’s medal for “first in
painting.”
Horne is best known for his
portraits. Between 1928 and
1991, he painted many prominent
figures from government and
industry, church and the military,
the courts and universities, and
medicine and banking, among
others. Among them are Jeanne
Sauvé, Roland Michener, Ernest
McMillan, R.S. McLaughlin,
Pauline McGibbon, George
Ignatieff, and two former
residents of Pickering Township,
Prime Minister John Diefenbaker
and Charles Luther Burton,
former CEO of Simpson’s
department stores.
Horne was also an
accomplished sculptor. Perhaps
his best work in that medium is
the war memorial he created
PM
V
Glen, Untitled (river scene) (PMV)
Wik
i
p
e
d
i
a
C. Horne,
Alexander Graham Bell
(Bell Canada).
Je
a
n
H
o
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n
e
Cleeve Horne
C. Horne,
Portrait of The Right Honourable
John George Diefenbaker
(Government of Canada).
Go
v
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o
f
C
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n
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d
a
PT
H
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C. Horne,
Portrait of C.L. Burton
(Private Collection).
Ph
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r
a
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h
b
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J
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W
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S
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a
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PM
V
Eddis, Old Man
(Private Collection).
Eddis, Spanish Woman (PMV)
Bo
t
h
i
m
a
g
e
s
:
C
e
n
t
r
a
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O
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A
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t
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I
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d
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t
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i
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n
,
An
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P
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1
9
0
3
-
1
9
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4
.
Eddis, Design for Easter
Decoration
Prospectus
11
(with his wife Jean) for the Law
Society of Upper Canada. A
number of his sculptures are
placed in prominent locations
and are well-known. These
would include his busts of
Alexander Graham Bell in the
Bell Telephone building in
Brantford, of R.S. McLaughlin in
the Royal Ontario Museum, and
of William Shakespeare in the
Shakespeare Garden in Stratford.
Over the years, Cleeve
received many honours including
the Order of Ontario and the
Order of Canada.
Horne’s connection with
Pickering came about when he
and his wife purchased a 200-
acre property in Pickering
Township, which they intended
to use as a weekend retreat. As
artists, they would not be
satisfied with an ordinary
country residence; they wanted
one that would “make a
contribution to Canadian
architecture and/or engineering.”
In this they succeeded perhaps
even beyond their imagination.
East of the Village of
Claremont,
in the Eighth
Concession, just
south of the
birthplace of Tom
Thomson, the
Hornes had built in 1959-1960,
a house of international
significance. Its walls are
entirely of glass, using an
architectural design described
as a hyperbolic paraboloid.
Over the years it has served as a
showcase whenever the town/
city had an open house tour.
The setting of the house is one of
great beauty overlooking, as it
does, a heavily treed valley with
not another building in sight. At
the height of the fall colours the
view is breathtaking.
Jean horne (1913-2007)
Jean Mildred Harris Horne was
the wife of Cleeve Horne. They
had met as students at OCA and
married in 1939. Jean was an
artist in her own right. She took
time to raise a family of three
children, but then, in 1949, once
again began to work in art. She
produced much work on her own,
but also assisted Cleeve in some
of his memorable public
sculptures. One of her lasting
achievements is that she was the
first woman sculptor in Canada
to apply techniques of welding.
werner mayer-gunther
(1917-1996)
Born in Nuremberg, Germany in
1917, at 15 Werner Mayer-
Gunther began his studies at the
Academy of Fine Arts there.31
He was greatly influenced by the
Weimar Bauhaus with Paul Klee,
Wassily Kandinsky and Lyonel
Feininger. Forced into exile in
1938, he returned to Germany in
1945, and was appointed as a
councillor of state for the visual
arts in the ministry of education
and culture in Saxony-Anhalt.
He re-established the Moritzburg
Museum in Halle, one of the
most important collections of
20th century art, that was
scattered by the Nazis. In 1951,
he emigrated to Canada. He
held his first solo show in New
York City at the Van Diemen-
Lilienfeld Galleries in 1958. By
1961, he was living in Whitevale,
Ontario. In 1970, however,
he moved to Cold Springs.
Among the awards he won was
the Prix de Rome (1960).19
PP
L
C. Horne, Untitled (Fall scene,
Claremont) (PPL).
Wik
i
p
e
d
i
a
Mayer-Gunther, Family
(Private Collection).
PP
L
C. Horne, Early Fall, Claremont
(PPL).
Je
a
n
H
o
r
n
e
C. Horne, Portrait of Jean Horne
(Private Collection).
Je
a
n
H
o
r
n
e
J. Horne, Flying Fish (CNE).
C. Horne,
Shakespeare Head (City of Stratford).
Horne House
PT
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1212
Charles T. Morey
(1927-2010)
Charles T. Morey was an
Assistant Professor and Director
of Studio Courses, Department of
Fine Arts, University of Toronto
in the 1960s.32 He was born in
Massachusetts and trained in
various institutions in the States
(including: B.F.A., Williams
College; M.F.A., University of
Georgia). Before coming to
Canada, he was an Instructor in
Arts, Dartmouth College,
Hanover, New Hampshire from
1957-1960. He had exhibitions at
the Station Gallery, Whitby Arts
Inc., Whitby, and the Hamilton
Art Gallery, among others.
While he resided in Canada
his home was in Pickering
Village. He was one of the
founders of the McLaughlin Art
Gallery in Oshawa.
Robin Mackenzie
(1938-2004)
Born in Toronto, but raised in
Pickering, Robin Mackenzie
attended the Ontario College of
Art in Toronto, then, for three
years, taught art at the Anderson
Street High School in Whitby.33
Mackenzie’s art is hard to
define; he experimented with a
great variety of materials. There
is a long, comprehensive review
of his work in artscanada.34
In the beginning his art was
more conventional, creating
sculptures in wood and welded or
cast steel. Then he turned to
electronic sculptures and audio-
kenetic devices. One such piece,
“Genuine Optional Replacement
Dashboard for Next Year’s
Greenberg Machine”, was the
first major purchase of a work of
sculpture by the Robert
McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa
in 1970. The quirky title is
typical of his output. Mackenzie
was one of the founders of the
gallery. He was a frequent
exhibitor at the Carmen
Lamanna Gallery in Toronto.
Mackenzie’s later work,
based on his life on the farm,
used materials found on
the farm. In particular, he
produced works showing the
evolution of matter in a new
category of conceptual art.
Examples of his art are found in
about 50 North American
galleries, including the National
Gallery of Canada and the Art
Gallery of Ontario.
William Ayton Lishman
(1939-2017)
Bill Lishman was born in
Pickering Township on 12
February 1939.35 His artistic
Ro
b
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M
a
c
k
e
n
z
i
e
artscanada (May/June 1977).
PP
L
Mackenzie, Elm Blocks (PPL).
PP
L
Mackenzie, Flowing Music (PPL).
Ph
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J
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a
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Lishman, Self Portrait
(Private Collection).
PM
V
Morey, Peace
(PMV, gift of Jane Beecroft).
PM
V
Morey, Untitled
(PMV, gift of Jane Beecroft).
13
career, working with metals,
began in a blacksmith shop in
the early 1960s in the Hamlet
of Greenwood (the blacksmith
shop has now been moved a few
hundred metres to the Pickering
Museum Village).
Lishman is perhaps best
known for his larger than life
sculptures of horses, but also
for some quirky instillations
like the Lunar Module and
Autohenge, a full-scale replica
of Stonehenge made from
crushed cars.
Among his creations were
the 86-foot high central theme
sculpture for Expo ’86, and one
of his last pieces the Iceberg
sculpture, of welded stainless
steel parts, 13 metres tall, for
the Canadian Museum of
Nature in Ottawa.
other sCenes oF
PiCkering.
Apart from those already cited,
there are a number of notable
works that depict buildings or
scenes of Pickering. Among these
are Arthur Philemon Coleman’s
Frenchman’s Bay (1927; ROM);
Manly MacDonald’s The Village
Smithy [of Greenwood] (date
unknown); Stanley Landymore’s
Frenchman’s Bay (PMV); Elsie
Nighswander’s Nighswander
Mill (PTHS) and CPR Bridge
(Private Collection); Mark
Fordham’s Erskine Church
(Private Collection) and Church
Street Bridge (Private
Collection); and Robert
Hinves’s recently completed
paintings of buildings on the
Federal lands: the Altona
Mennonite Meetinghouse,
Bentley-Carruthers House,
Nighswander-McGee House,
and Nighswander-Bassett House
(all in the collection of the City
of Pickering). We can only show
here the images for which we
have permission.
PT
H
S
Nighswander, Nighswander Mill (PTHS).
PM
V
Landymore, Frenchman’s Bay (PMV).
Ci
t
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f
P
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k
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Hinves, Altona Mennonite Meetinghouse (City of Pickering).
Ph
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a
p
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b
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C
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d
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S
a
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a
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Lishman, Iceberg (Canadian Museum of Nature).
Bil
l
L
i
s
h
m
a
n
Lishman,
Transcending the Traffic
Els
i
e
N
i
g
h
s
w
a
n
d
e
r
Nighswander, CPR Bridge
(Private Collection).
14
PubliC sCulPtures
There are also, spread around the
city, a number of public
sculptures completed by local
sculptors. They include works by
Dorsey James, Ron and Linda
Baird, Edward Falkenberg, Jean-
Pierre Schoss, and Geordie
Lishman. Gerd Unterman, who
lived in the north of Pickering,
and who died last year, had also
produced a number of public
sculptures.36
Notes
1 On Fothergill see James L. Baillie,
Jr., “Charles Fothergill, 1782-
1840” in Canadian Historical
Review 25 (1944), 376-396; Paul
Romney, “Fothergill, Charles”, in
Dictionary of Canadian
Biography 7 (1988), 317-321;
and John W. Sabean, “The
Pickering Years of Charles
Fothergill”, in Pathmaster, Spring
Special Edition, 1915.
2 Thomas Fisher Rare Book
Library (TFRBL), Vol. 24, pp.
89-94; Henry Scadding, Toronto
of Old. Ed. F.H. Armstrong
(Toronto: Oxford University
Press, 1966), p. 140.
3 The story of his encounter with
the nuthatch is told in TFRBL,
Vol. 19, p. 68; the image itself is
reproduced in Vol. 20, p. 247.
4 The ROM’s copy was donated to
them by the Hon. Mr. Justice
G.A. McGillivray, Fothergill’s
great grandson. The PMV’s copy
was given to it by Andrew Schell,
Fothergill’s great, great, great
grandson.
5 “Report of Select Committee on
the Petition of Charles Fothergill,
Esq., in Appendix to the Journals
of the House of Assembly of
Upper Canada 1836-37 (Toronto
1837), #30.
6 Scadding (1966), p. 149.
7 As quoted in Scadding (1966),
p. 148.
Ph
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Ron and Linda Baird, Millennium Mast
Ed
w
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F
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Edward Falkenberg, Dreamscape
Ph
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Jean-Pierre Schoss, Workhorse
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8 On Birrell see John W. Sabean,
“Documenting the Life of
Ebenezer Birrell (1800-1888)” In
six parts: Pathmaster, 18: 1&2
(2015), 1-10; 18: 3&4 (2016),
22-27; 19: 1&2 (2016), 6-15; 19:
3&4 (2016), 22-29; 20: 1&2
(2016), 4-16; 20: 3&4 (2016),
17-29; 21: 1&2 (2016), 1-11.
9 Illustrated Historical Atlas of the
County of Ontario (Toronto: J.H.
Beers, 1877) p. ix.
10 The paintings labelled Kilaverick
Castle and Burleigh Castle are
copies of the same work and
should be properly labelled
Caerlaverock Castle.
Caerlaverock Castle was first
built in the 13th century and it is
located on the southern coast of
Scotland near Dumfries.
11 Barry Lord, The History of
Painting in Canada: Toward a
People’s Art (Toronto: NC Press,
1974), pp. 68-69.
12 J. Russell Harper, Painting in
Canada: A History. (2nd ed.,
Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1977), pp. 166-167.
13 On Hannah Barclay see Robert
M. Fuller and Kathleen Bowley,
“Barclays of Pickering”
[Windsor:] Privately printed,
1976.
14 On Hunt see http://www.freemanart.
ca, ArtistBiographies.
15 “Artistic Work”, Pickering News
(9 February 1883), p. 3.
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Dorsey James, The Hibou, or Owl
Gerd Unterman, Spirit Bear
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Geordie Lishman, Gather
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The directors of the
Pickering Township Historical Society
thank the Binns family
for a generous donation that will support
the society’s publications.
The directors of the
Pickering Township Historical Society
thank Elexicon Energy and
City of Pickering for their generous support.
Board of Directors:
Honourary Presidents: Lilian M. Gauslin
Tom Mohr
Past President John Sabean
President: Vacant
Vice President: Alarna McKie
Recording & Corresponding Secretary: Carol Sabean
Membership Secretary: John Earley
Treasurer: Vacant
Editor: John Sabean
Design: John Cormier
Hands On Art & Design
Pathmaster is the newsletter of
the Pickering Township Historical
Society and is issued occasionally. Address
correspondence to PTHS, c/o 928 Reytan
Blvd., Pickering, Ontario, L1W 1Y7.
E-mail: johnsabean88@gmail.com.
For general enquiries address
correspondence to PTHS, P.O. Box 66053,
Town Centre, Pickering, ON, LIV 6P7.
Website: pickeringhistorical.ca.
16 On Schrapnel see https://danfield,
“Art, Paintings”.
17 On Florence McGillivray see
W.C. Allen, She is One of the
Best: A Researchers Notes on the
Life and Times of Canadian
Artist Florence McGillivray
(2019); and W.C. Allen, A
Collection of Works by Florence
Helena McGillivray (2016).
18 Pickering News (3 February
1893), p. 7.
19 Maria Tippett, By a Lady:
Celebrating Three Centuries of
Art by Canadian Women
(Toronto: Penguin Books, 1992),
53-54; Allen (2019), 55, 63, 90.
20 Beers (1877); Picturesque
Canada (Toronto, 1882).
21 On Tom Thomson see Dennis
Reid, ed., Thomson (Toronto &
Ottawa: Art Gallery of Ontario
and National Gallery of Canada,
2002).
22 Joan Murray, The Art of Tom
Thomson (Toronto: Art Gallery
of Ontario, 1971), p. 21.
23 On George Thomson see http://
greyroots.pastperfectonline.com.
24 On Bess Housser Harris see
Wikipedia; John W. Sabean,
“Names in the News: Fred and
Bess Housser”, in Pathmaster, 1:1
(Autumn 1997), 8.
25 On Doris Mills see John W.
Sabean, “The Life and Times of
Doris Louise Huestis Mills Speirs”
in Pathmaster, 24:1&2 (Winter
2019), 1-9; 24:3&4 (Spring
2019), 17-31.
26 Sabean (1997), 8.
27 Joan Murray, Origins of
Abstraction in Canada:
Modernist Pioneers (Oshawa:
Robert McLaughlin Gallery,
1994), p. 6; Tippett (1992), p.
112.
28 On Dorothy Glen see John W.
Sabean, “Names in the News:
Dorothy and Andrew Glen”, in
Pathmaster 2:4 (Summer 1999),
29-30.
29 See “Brougham Artist a Realist”,
in Pathmaster 2:4 (Summer
1999), p. 30. The original review
appeared in an unknown local
newspaper on 22 October 1970.
30 On Cleeve Horne see John W.
Sabean, “Names in the News:
Cleeve Horne”, in Pathmaster,
2:2 (Winter 1999), 12; Colin S.
MacDonald, A Dictionary of
Canadian Artists (3rd ed.,
Ottawa: Canadian Paperbacks
Publishing Co., 1977), 2: 467-
469.
31 On Werner Mayer-Gunther see
https://www.artland.com, “artists
Werner Mayer-Gunther”; https://
www.facebook.com, “posts”.
32 On Charles Morey see
MacDonald (1977), 4: 1278.
33 On Robin Mackenzie see Artist’s
profile, Robert McLaughlin
Gallery, Oshawa.
34 Peter Perrin, “Robin Mackenzie:
The Sense of Site” in artscanada
(May/June 1977).
35 On Bill Lishman see William
Lishman, Father Goose: The
Adventures of a Wildlife Hero
(Toronto: Little, Brown and
Company, 1995).
36 To view the public sculptures
in Pickering check out the
PineRidge Arts Council
(PRAC) website.
100th BIRTHDAY
Members of the Pickering
Township Historical Society
extend their congratulations
to Lillian Gauslin
on attaining her
One Hundredth birthday
this summer.