Homer Watson
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Homer Ransford Watson (January 14, 1855 – May 30, 1936) was a
Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
landscape painter. He has been characterized as the painter who first painted Canada as Canada, rather than as a
pastiche A pastiche () is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking ...
of European painting. He was a member and president (1918–1922) of the
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria on 16 ...
, as well as a founding member and first president (1907–1911) of the
Canadian Art Club The Canadian Art Club was an artists' group established in Toronto 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. ...
. Although Watson had almost no formal training, by the mid-1920s he was well known and admired by Canadian collectors and critics, his rural landscape paintings making him one of the central figures in Canadian art from the 1880s until the First World War.


Life and career

Homer Ransford Watson was born on 14 January 1855, in Doon, Ontario, the second of Ransford and Susan Mohr Watson's five children. A small village founded in the 1830s at the junction of Schneider's Creek and the Grand River, Doon's earliest documented population was 150 in the 1871 census. Watson descended from
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settlers who arrived in Ontario in the early 19th century. His father, a mill and factory owner, died in 1861 when Watson was six years old. Following Ransford's death, the family's only source of income was Susan's work as a
seamstress A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician. Notable d ...
. Ransford left behind a library of books that Watson studied from and influenced his early drawings. A gift of a set of paints from an aunt made him decide to become an artist. He sought the advice of
Thomas Mower Martin Thomas Mower Martin (1838–1934) was an English-born Canadian landscape painter dubbed "the father of Canadian art" Life and work MartinToronto 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 ...
, and moved there in 1874. He copied works at the
Toronto Normal School The Toronto Normal School was a teachers college in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1847, the normal school was located at Church and Gould streets in central Toronto (after 1852), and was a predecessor to the current Ontario Institute for ...
and was mainly self-taught, but met other artists in Toronto (e.g., Lucius O'Brien) while working part-time at the Notman-Fraser photography studio. In 1876, Watson traveled to
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, and may have seen the work of painter
George Inness George Inness (May 1, 1825 – August 3, 1894) was an American landscape painting, landscape painter. Now recognized as one of the most influential American artists of the nineteenth century, Inness was influenced by the Hudson River Schoo ...
. Although he never met Inness, he was influenced by the
Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the sur ...
and painted along the
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and
Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River ( ; Unami language, Lenape: ) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, crossing three lower Northeastern United States, Northeast states (New York, Pennsylvani ...
s in the
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. In 1880, the Marquis of Lorne opened the first exhibition of the Canadian Academy; Watson's work was displayed and he was elected an Associate member. That same year, he sold a major work, ''The Pioneer Mill,'' to the Marquis for
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
. Watson married Roxanna (Roxa for short) Bechtel in 1881, and the couple moved into the Drake House at Doon. They bought the house in 1883, and he kept the house as his permanent residence until his death. Watson painted the rural Grand River countryside for most of his artistic life. He was noted for his commitment to Canadian landscapes: he said at a lecture on "The Methods of Some Great Landscape Painters" at the University of Toronto in 1900: "there is at the bottom of each artistic conscience a love for the land of their birth... no immortal work has been done which has not as one of its promptings for its creation a feeling its creator had of having roots in his native land and being a product of its soil". The artists with whom Watson was most often associated were the English landscape painter
John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...
(1776–1837) and such French
Barbizon Barbizon () is a commune (town) in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France. It is located near the Fontainebleau Forest. Demographics The inhabitants are called ''Barbizonais''. Art history The Barbizon school of painters is n ...
artists as
Théodore Rousseau Étienne Pierre Théodore Rousseau (; 15 April 181222 December 1867) was a French painter of the Barbizon school. Life Youth He was born in Paris, France in a bourgeois family. At first he received a basic level of training, but soon displa ...
(1812–1867),
Charles-François Daubigny Charles-François Daubigny ( , , ; 15 February 181719 February 1878) was a French painter, one of the members of the Barbizon school, and is considered an important precursor of impressionism. He was also a prolific printmaker, mostly in etching ...
(1817–1878), Narcisse Díaz de la Peña (1807–1876),
Constant Troyon Constant Troyon (; August 28, 1810 – February 21, 1865) was a French painter of the Barbizon school. In the early part of his career, he painted mostly landscapes. It was only comparatively late in life that Troyon found his ''métier'' as ...
(1810–1865),
Jules Dupré Jules Louis Dupré (; April 5, 1811 – October 6, 1889) was a French painter, one of the chief members of the Barbizon school of landscape painters. If Corot stands for the lyric and Rousseau for the epic aspect of the poetry of nature, Dupré ...
(1811–1889), and tangentially
Jean-François Millet Jean-François Millet (; 4 October 1814 – 20 January 1875) was a French artist and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realis ...
(1814–1875) because Watson didn`t share Millet's focus on the nobility of human figures. The thematic, formal, and psychological similarities between Watson, John Constable, and the Barbizon artists were strong. They were emotionally and psychologically devoted to landscapes with whose topography and inhabitants they were intimately familiar. In 1882, while touring Canada,
Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...
first noted the similarity between Watson and Constable, dubbing him the "Canadian
Constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...
" due to the similarity between Watson's work and of the great English landscape painter. Wilde and Watson may have met at public events. There may have been letters between the two men which could be in a private collection or lost. Watson moved to
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in 1887 for three years (1887–1890), and further established his reputation. Over the next few years, his works became increasingly popular among collectors and received prizes at expositions across North America. In 1902, at the height of his British career, he exhibited ''The Flood Gate''. In 1904, he won a bronze medal at the Canadian exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. He campaigned to save the
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woodlands that he had preserved in his landscapes. Due to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 in which he lost his savings, he was forced to hand over many works from his personal collection to the local savings & loans firm, which held them for security and then tried to sell the paintings itself. Homer Watson died in Doon on May 30, 1936.


Legacy

Many of Watson's works are still on display at his old house, which he and his sister had transformed into a small art gallery. Homer Watson's letters, his unpublished manuscripts, and his paintings, drawings, and prints document the issues that most interested him as an artist. Of his concerns, the commemoration of southern Ontario's pioneers and early settlers and the visual expression of Canadian regional and national identities locate Watson firmly within the milieu of many of his fellow artists of the time. In addition to these priorities, his dedication to safeguarding the natural environment was exceptional and far-sighted. On May 27, 2005,
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issued a pair of
postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...
s in his honour. Two stamps of denominations 50 and 85 cents were issued depicting two of his works, ''Down in the Laurentides'' and ''The Flood Gates''. An arterial road in Kitchener, which connects the Doon area to the main parts of the city, is named Homer Watson Boulevard. Watson has been designated a
Person of National Historic Significance Persons of National Historic Significance (National Historic People) () are people designated by the Canadian government as being nationally significant in the history of the country. Designations are made by the Minister of the Environment on the ...
in Canada. Watson's former house in Doon, now the Homer Watson House & Gallery, was designated a
National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...
in 1980.Homer Watson House / Doon School of Fine Arts
National Register of Historic Places


Selected works

File:Homer Watson - Old Mill and Stream - 1879.jpg, ''Old Mill and Stream 1879'' File:The Castellated Cliff 1879.jpg, ''The Castellated Cliff'' 1879 File:The Stone Road 1881.jpg, ''The Stone Road'' 1881 File:Down in the Laurentides 1882.jpg, ''Down in the Laurentides'' 1882 File:Near the Close of a Stormy Day 1884.jpg, ''Near the Close of a Stormy Day'' 1884 File:Nut Gatherers in the Forest 1900.jpg, ''Nut Gatherers in the Forest'' 1900 File:The Flood Gate 1901.jpg, ''The Flood Gates'' 1901 File:Rushing Stream by Moonlight 1905.jpg, ''Rushing Stream by Moonlight'' 1905 File:Pink Bush 1906.jpg, ''Pink Bush'' 1906 File:Study for Red Oak 1917.jpg, ''Study for Red Oak'' 1917 File:Moonlight, Waning Winter 1924.jpg, ''Moonlight, Waning Winter'' 1924 File:Mountain River 1932.jpg, ''Mountain River'' 1932


References


Sources

* * * *


Further reading

* * *


External links


Homer Watson House & Gallery

Virtual Museum on Homer Watson






at the
National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...
, Ottawa, Ontario {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Homer 1855 births 1936 deaths 19th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters 20th-century Canadian painters Canadian landscape painters Artists from Kitchener, Ontario Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) 19th-century Canadian male artists 20th-century Canadian male artists Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts World War I artists 20th-century Canadian war artists