John William Hurrell Watts was born in

Teignmouth Teignmouth ( ) is a seaside town, fishing port and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign, about south of Exeter. The town had a population of 14 ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

on September 16, 1850. He emigrated to Canada in 1873. He was the first curator 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 ...

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

.Collins, John B., "John William Hurrell Watts" Canadian Dictionary of National Biography. vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed October 16, 2017. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/watts_john_william_hurrell_14E.html As an architect, he also designed Fleck/Paterson House, St Augustine's and Booth House. He was a founding member of the

Ontario Association of Architects The Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) is the regulatory body responsible for registering and licensing all architects legally entitled to practice the scope of architecture in the Province of Ontario, Canada Canada is a country in N ...

. Four small etchings by Watts were featured in the first Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) exhibition in March 1880. He was part of the Etching Revival Movement, which was virtually unknown in Canada, and was perhaps the first practising etcher to display his work in Canada. He taught the technique to artists

William Brymner William Brymner, (December 14, 1855 – June 18, 1925) was a Canadian figure and landscape painter and educator. In addition to playing a key role in the development of Impressionism in Canada, Brymner taught numerous artists who became leadi ...

and Ernest Fosbery. Watts worked across disciplines as an artist and a curator. An important figure in the

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

arts community, he served as the first curator of 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 ...

. Watts also directed the

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

Diploma Program, which included acquisitions for the Academy's collection as well as exhibition design between 1882 and 1897. As a creative, Watts was not limited to etching and took up watercolor, oil painting, and even architecture, designing a number of homes in the capital region. After his death in 1917, Watts gifted his etching press and tools to Fosbery, who became a celebrated etcher and teacher in his own right.

References

External links

John William Hurrell Watts fonds
at the

, Ottawa, Ontario 1850 births 1917 deaths People from Teignmouth Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Architects from Ottawa English emigrants to Canada {{Canada-architect-stub