William Brymner, CMGRCA (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 leading figures in Canadian modern art.[1]
In the spring of 1884, Brymner travelled to
Runswick Bay, North Yorkshire, England, with the British artist Frederick W. Jackson (1859-1918) and Scottish-Canadian artist James Kerr-Lawson (1862-1939). It was there that Brymner completed his major works A Wreath of Flowers (1884), which later served as his diploma submission for the
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and The Lonely Orphans Taken to Her Heart (1884).[1]
In January 1885, Brymner returned to Paris to resume his studies at the Académie Julian. During this time, he created the
Barbizon school-inspired landscape painting Border of the Forest of Fontainebleau (1885), which was exhibited at the
Paris Salon.[1]
Returning to Canada in 1885, Brymner spent the summer in
Baie-Saint-Paul in the Lower Saint Lawrence region of
Quebec. There he created his first paintings depicting rural Quebec, a subject he frequently would return to throughout his career.[1]
Later life
In 1886, Brymner settled in
Montreal after staying in Paris "on and off for almost seven years."[3] That year, he travelled to Western Canada via the newly completed
Canadian Pacific Railway, hoping to take advantage of the fact that the CPR was commissioning landscapes of the
Rocky Mountains. Brymner spent several weeks on the
Siksika Nation Reserve near Gleichen (now Alberta), where he witnessed the severe hunger of the Siksika People due to the government's failure to provide adequate food rations. This experience culminated in one of Brymner's most haunting paintings, Giving Out Rations to the Blackfoot Indians, NWT (1886).[1]
Upon his return from Western Canada, Brymner began teaching at the
Art Association of Montreal, where he would remain for thirty years.[1] Many members of the
Beaver Hall Group studied under Brymner, who encouraged them to explore new modernist approaches to painting.
Brymner specialized in figure scenes and avoided large historical subjects except for his paintings of the
Canadian Pacific Railway. Two Girls Reading of 1898 displays a careful treatment of light and an understanding of the force of a simple emphatic composition.[3]
In 1883, he was made an associate of the
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA). In 1904, he received a silver medal at the
Canadian exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.[7] He was elected vice-president of the RCA in 1907 and president in 1909. In 1916, he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George and could use the honorary prefix
C.M.G. after his name.
^
abBoutilier, Alicia; Maréchal, Paul (2010). William Brymner: Artist, Teacher, Colleague. Kingston: Agnes Etherington Art Center. p. 129.
ISBN978-1-55339-251-4.