Curtis Williamson

Curtis Williamson RCA (January 2, 1867 – April 18, 1944) known for his portraits and figure painting; also genre and landscape.[1] He was nicknamed "the Canadian Rembrandt" because of his dark, tonal style.[2] Williamson showed his work at the Canadian Art Club's inaugural exhibition in 1907 and like some of the other members, his work had a Hague school or Barbizon sensibility.[3]

Curtis Williamson
Williamson in 1930
Born
Curtis Albert Williamson

(1867-01-02)January 2, 1867
Brampton, Ontario
DiedApril 18, 1944(1944-04-18) (aged 77)
Toronto, Ontario
Educationstudio of J.W.L. Forster, Toronto (1885-1887); Académie Julian, Paris (1889-1892); France, Holland (c. 1894-1904)
Electedmember in 1907, Royal Canadian Academy; founding member of the Canadian Art Club (1907) and its secretary (1908-1909) and member of its executive council (1910-1915)

Career

Williamson was born in Brampton, Ontario.[2] He studied in Toronto, and Paris where he began exhibiting in the Paris Salon in 1891, then in Holland.[1] He brought back a style that was low in tone back with him from Holland when he returned to Toronto in 1892.[4] In 1893, he was elected to the Ontario Society of Artists and exhibited there extensively (1893-1922).[4] He returned to Europe in 1895 and painted in rural Holland, then travelled to France and painted with James Wilson Morrice at Fontainebeau.[4] He also painted at Barbizon.[3] In 1904, he returned to Toronto won a silver medal for his painting Klaasje (1902) at the Canadian exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri.[2] In 1906, he travelled to Newfoundland and painted fishing villages.[4]

In 1907, with Edmund Morris, he helped found the Canadian Art Club, and served as its secretary (1908-1909) and then, as a member of its executive council (1910-1915).[2] He was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy in 1907 and exhibited there from 1894 to 1930.[5] In 1908, the understated manner he used in his paintings as in Fish Sheds, Newfoundland, was seen as startling.[6] He was a founding member of the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto with Lawren Harris and in 1913, Harris praised his work, calling it full of “half-subdued fire” in the Yearbook of Canadian Art.[6] In 1914, he established a studio in the Studio Building. Later, his painting style was freer and less subdued.[2][4]

Among his portraits, he painted Portrait of Dr J. M. MacCallum ('A Cynic') (1917), Sir Frederick Banting, (1924), and G. Blair Laing (1936-1937).[4] He died in Toronto at age 77.[4]

References
  1. Bradfield, Helen (1970). Art Gallery of Ontario: the Canadian Collection. Toronto: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0070925046. OCLC 118037. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  2. Boyanoski, Christine. "Curtis Albert Williamson". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  3. Foss, Brian (2010). "Painting, c. 1880-1914". The Visual Arts in Canada: the Twentieth Century. Foss, Brian, Paikowsky, Sandra, Whitelaw, Anne (eds.). Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-19-542125-5. OCLC 432401392.
  4. Parker, Judith. "Curtis Williamson, A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and vol. 9 (Online Only)" (PDF). National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  5. McMann, Evelyn (1981). Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  6. King, James (2012). Lawren Harris: Inward Journey. Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishing. p. 39. Retrieved 1 May 2021.

Bibliography
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