The Canadian Art Club was an artists' group established in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in 1907 to advance the standards of Canadian art exhibitions and to exhibit the work of distinguished Canadian artists, particularly those who had studied abroad or lived there. It declined after the death of its co-founder Edmund Morris in 1913, ceased to exist in 1915 but was not formally dissolved till 1933.

History

The Canadian Art Club, a private exhibiting society, originated in Toronto from 1907 and had a membership (by invitation only) of 20 artists. The club, modeled on Whistler's International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, encouraged achievement of individuals and was nationalist in persuading expatriates to exhibit at home, but defined nationality in only the broadest terms. Its eight exhibitions hoped to establish a high standard for other artists and concentrated on small, carefully hung groups of works by leading Canadian artists. It was supported by its lay members. The annual exhibitions organized in Toronto, and in Montreal in 1910, included some of the finest work being produced by Canadian artists. Membership included painters and sculptors and was by invitation only. Edmund Morris and Homer Watson were key figures in its formation and the first exhibition included work by Horatio Walker, working in New York since 1885, and James Wilson Morrice of Paris (since 1890). The members in Toronto in April 1909 are shown in this photograph which is identified and discussed by M. O. Hammond. (Back row left to right: Edmund Morris, Archibald Browne, Curtis Williamson. Front row left to right: Phimister Proctor, Horatio Walker, W.E. Atkinson). Later expatriate exhibitors included Ernest Lawson, James Kerr-Lawson, and the sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor. Montreal members included Maurice Cullen, Clarence Gagnon, William H. Clapp, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, and Henri Hébert The only woman invited to exhibit with the club was Laura Muntz, later Laura Muntz Lyall, in 1908, who lived in Montreal at the time.(Horatio Walker had warned Morris to "keep clear of women artists, as of the devil"). The main instigators of the club were the painters Edmund Morris and Curtis Williamson, who were "deeply disturbed by the tired, old-fashioned look of Canadian art as seen in the various annual exhibitions" and attempted to establish higher standards through small shows. Membership of the club was by invitation only. Homer Watson was the first president, and other founding members included the Scottish-born William Brymner, who had been one of the first Canadian painters to study in Paris (at the

Académie Julian The () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907). The school was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number and qual ...

), Morrice, Horatio Walker, Franklin Brownell, William Edwin Atkinson and J. Archibald Browne as secretary. The work of these artists was varied in style and subject, but generally it showed influence from

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral a ...

. Their eight exhibitions were well received, but the Club disbanded in 1915, having lost some of its momentum because of the death by drowning of Morris in 1913 and because of the distractions of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, personality clashes among some of the members and the modest financial reward. However, the Club helped to prepare the way for the

Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an Intergovernmentalism, intergovernmental political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non- ...

. The papers of the club can be found in the Canadian Art Club Fonds CA OTAG SC009, Art Gallery of Ontario E. P. Taylor Research Library and Archives, Toronto.

Notes

Influences

The members of the Club who exhibited their work were highly influenced by the Hague school, Barbizon school and British plein-air painting, by

and the Impressionists. Works by the members were well received by critics, and the club's activists played the roles of important catalysts for both artistic and institutional change. A. Y. Jackson often acknowledged his debt to Maurice Cullen in such statements as "to us he was a hero".A. Y.Jackson, ''A Painter's Country''. Toronto, Clarke Irwin, (1958), p. 19.

Notable members

* Homer Watson * Franklin Brownell * Maurice Galbraith Cullen * Clarence Alphonse Gagnon * James Wilson Morrice * Horatio Walker * William Brymner * Edmund Montague Morris * Alexander Phimister Proctor

History

Notes

Influences

Notable members

References

Further reading