1890-91.] ART IN CANADA TO-DAY. 113 



ART IN CANADA TO-DAY. 

 By J. W. L. FORSTER. 



(Read January jist, i8qi.) 



Everything that grows to-day is from seed planted yesterday. Cana- 

 dian painters have inherited from the pioneers of the profession in this 

 country the legacy bequeathed by our back-woods-men to their sons — 

 honesty and industry, and a hard but fair field for both. During the 

 later years of colonial life Canada^has contributed many brilliant names 

 to the art rolls of other lands — the Smillie Brothers. LeClear, Woodward, 

 Rattray, Sandham, Fraser, Walker, Shannon, Peel, Herbert and many 

 more ; but in the meantime our own field has been occupied by 

 foreigners. 



In Western Canada the names signed upon pictures during the last 

 fifty years have been legion : pilgrims each, as all our fathers were, yet 

 they have helped to plant a stem in the soil of our country from whose 

 vintage we drink to-day. The great majority of visiting artists were 

 British, as their patrons were mostly men whose education and taste 

 were of that careful, academic school. For a time the patronage 

 of art was liberal, but this passed away with the legacies that sustained 

 it, or with the men whose taste and liberality had encouraged the advent 

 of artists of note. But those early days brought to their sons the 

 demands of a busy colonial life, and little opportunity for the culture of 

 the esthetic, and so one by one the artists — birds of passage — disap- 

 peared. Paul Kane, the first distinguished Canadian, Sawyer, Fowler, 

 Creswell, Berthon remained. Of these Mr. Berthon's hand alone remains 

 to do honor to the Toronto Law Society in portraits for Osgoode Hall of 

 our distinguished jurists. The Toronto Law Society, inheriting, as many 

 of its members do, the blood and the traditions of the founders of our 

 local commonwealth, has kept alive the spirit of a generous age. 



The first, or Upper Canada Art Society, was formed in 1841, the late 

 Mr. J. G. Howard being its chief promoter. It held its first exhibition 

 in the Parliament Buildings, and amongst the pictures shown were a 

 number of valuable paintings by British painters. The Electoral Division 

 Society next assumed the patronage of the fine arts, and during its exist- 

 ence competitive prizes were offered for both professional and amateur 

 artists. James Armstrong was its most active head, the late Col. Denison 

 being its first president. This society merged into the Industrial and 



