Maurice Cullen (artist)

Cullen was born in St. John's, Newfoundland Colony.[1] In 1870 his family moved to Montreal, Quebec where he began his art training studying sculpture at the Conseil des Arts et Manufactures and with the sculptor Louis-Philippe Hébert at the Monument National.[2][3] In 1888, he travelled to Paris and took courses at the École des Beaux-Arts with Jean-Léon Gérôme and at the Académie Colarossi with Gustave Courtois and L.A. Rixens. He later studied at the Académie Julian and was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in 1890 and studied with Élie Delaunay and Alfred Philippe Roll. Although he received academic training, he was influenced in his painting by the Impressionists, especially Claude Monet and, as early as 1891, critics gave positive reviews to his Impressionist-influenced work. In 1895, the French Government purchased a painting entitled L'été and he was elected an associate of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts – the first Canadian to be so honoured but that year, he returned to Montreal and made it his home, turning from French subjects to Canadian ones, with an emphasis on snowscapes and using a modified Impressionist technique.[3] Besides the Quebec landscape, he became the chronicler of the city. In 1910, he married Barbara Merchant Pilot, a widow whose son, his stepson, grew up to be the artist Robert Wakeham Pilot. In the same year, he was invited to be a member of the progressive Canadian Art Club (1910).[3] Cullen set an example for other Canadian painters. A. Y. Jackson said of him,

"To us, he was a hero."[3]

Beginning in January 1918, Cullen served with Canadian forces in the First World War. He came to the attention of Lord Beaverbrook, who arranged for him to be commissioned as one of the Canadian official war artists along with Frederick Varley, J.W. Beatty and C. W. Simpson.[4]

Cullen died March 28, 1934, at Chambly, Québec.[1]

William Robinson Watson (1887–1973) in Montreal, of Watson Art Gallery, represented Cullen and published a book on him in 1931.[5] An exhibition, Legacies of Impressionism in Canada: Three Exhibitions, was held from January 31 to April 19, 2009 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2019, the National Gallery of Canada travelling show, Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons, opened in Munich. It came to the National Gallery in 2022.

• 
  The Mill Stream (ca 1905), National Gallery of Canada.
• 
  Customs Port, Venice (1897), National Gallery of Canada
• 
  Rising Tide, Le Pouldu, Bretagne (1901), Musée des beaux-arts du Québec
• 
  Snowfall, Lac Tremblant (1922) Private Collection
• 
  Ice Breaking, L'Assomption, (ca 1914), National Gallery of Canada
• 
  Ile d'Orleans landscape, Musée de la civilisation, Quebec
• 
  No Man's Land (Douai plain, France) (1920), Canadian War Museum

• First Canadian to be elected associate member of Société nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1895[6]
• Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, elected full member 1907[7]
• Bronze medal, Canadian exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Missouri, 1904[6]
• Awarded Jessie Dow Prize, Art Association of Montreal, 1911, 1913[6]
• Elected first vice-president of Arts Club, Montreal (founded at his studio), 1912[6]
• He was declared a Canadian Person of National Historic Significance in 1944.[8]

• Canadian official war artists