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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 2 0 2 1 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 M 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. 2 BK M PM V PM V PM V TF R B L 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). Ph o t o g r a p h b y J o h n W . S a b e a n . Razorbacks (PMV) Achee (PMV) Greater Yellowlegs (PMV) PM V TF R B L 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 3 Ph o t o g r a p h b y J o h n W . S a b e a n Ph o t o g r a p h b y J o h n W . S a b e a n AG H AG H 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 ww w . t u l b o l . d e m o n . c o . u k / w a s h h o u s e . h t m . 4 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 H AGH Membership Form. 5 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) PP L Southworth, The Willson House (Private Collection). Willson House Ph o t o g r a p h b y J o h n W . S a b e a n Hunt, Portrait of John Miller (Private Collection). Ph o t o g r a p h b y C a i t l i n S a b e a n - U n t e r m a n n Hilts, The Northwest (PPL). PP L Pic k e r i n g N e w s , 9 F e b r u a r y 1 8 8 3 , p . 3 . 6 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). W.C . A l l e n W.C . A l l e n W.C . A l l e n ; P M V W.C . A l l e n ; P M V McGillivray, Portrait of George McGillivray (PMV). W.C . A l l e n ; P M V W.C . A l l e n ; P M V W.C . A l l e n W.C . A l l e n W.C . A l l e n Th r e e i m a g e s a r e f r o m : T h o m a s C o n a n t , Up p e r C a n a d a S k e t c h e s ( 1 8 9 8 ) . Shrapnel, Log Cabin Shrapnel, Farewell Tavern Shrapnel, Fenian Raid 7 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 e r s ( 1 8 7 7 ) . Ge o r g e M o n r o G r a n t , P i c t u r e s q u e Ca n a d a ( 1 8 7 5 ) . Ph o t o g r a p h b y J o h n W . S a b e a n . AG O PT H S PT H S 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 i r s Doris Speirs Do r i s S p e i 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 f e l F i n e A r t A u c t i o n H o u s e 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 i 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 r i s S p e i r s ; A G O Woman of Revelation (AGO). PP L 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 r n e Cleeve Horne C. Horne, Portrait of The Right Honourable John George Diefenbaker (Government of Canada). Go v . o f C a n a d a PT H S C. Horne, Portrait of C.L. Burton (Private Collection). Ph o t o g r a p h b y J o h n W . S a b e a n 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 l O n t a r i o S c h o o l o f A r t a n d I n d u s t r i a l D e s i g n , An n u a l P r o s p e c t u s 1 9 0 3 - 1 9 0 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 H S Ph o t o g r a p h b y J o h n W . S a b e a n 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 i n 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 o t o g r a p h b y J o h n W . S a b e a n 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 y o f P i c k e r i n g Hinves, Altona Mennonite Meetinghouse (City of Pickering). Ph o t o g r a p h b y C a n d i s S a b e a n 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 o t o g r a p h b y J o h n W . S a b e a n Ron and Linda Baird, Millennium Mast Ed w a r d F a l k e n b e r g Edward Falkenberg, Dreamscape Ph o t o g r a p h b y J o h n W . S a b e a n Jean-Pierre Schoss, Workhorse 15 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. Ph o t o g r a p h b y M a r y C o o k Ph o t o g r a p h b y J o h n W . S a b e a n Dorsey James, The Hibou, or Owl Gerd Unterman, Spirit Bear Ph o t o g r a p h b y J o h n W . S a b e a n Geordie Lishman, Gather 16 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.