Robert Harris (painter)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Harris
Self-portrait by Robert Harris
Self-portrait (1908)
Born(1849-09-18)September 18, 1849
Bryn y Pîn, Caerhun, Wales, UK
DiedFebruary 27, 1919(1919-02-27) (aged 69)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
NationalityCanadian
Known forPainter
Spouse(s)Elizabeth Putnam (married 1885)

Robert Harris CMG RCA (September 18, 1849 – February 27, 1919) was a Welsh-born Canadian painter, most noted for his portrait of the Fathers of Confederation.

Early life[]

Born in Caerhun, Conwy, Wales, he came to Prince Edward Island via Liverpool with his family as a youth. In 1873, he studied art in Boston, in 1877 attended London's Slade School of Art, and later that same year, studied in Paris with Léon Bonnat.[1]

In 1880, he was commissioned to sketch the principal parties in the Donnelley's murder trial for the Toronto Globe.[1] He returned to study in Paris with Bonnat again in 1881. In 1882, he shared a studio with American painter A. B. Reinhardt at Ecouen, 17 miles from Paris.[1] In 1883, he exhibited in the Paris Salon.[2] While abroad, he may have learned of Impressionism, but on his return to Canada, in 1883, he was commissioned by the Dominion Government to paint a record of the 1864 Quebec Conference. The painting was later known by the popular title The Fathers of Confederation.[1] Afterwards, he settled in Montreal, and began painting in an academic style the social and political elite in Toronto and Montreal.

Career[]

In 1886, his painting of A Meeting of the School Trustees, of a woman teacher converting a gathering of male trustees to her point of view, was the sensation of the 1886 Royal Canadian Academy show. The Fathers of Confederation, early in his career, established his reputation as one of the most distinguished portrait painters in Canada. Between 1889 and 1896, he painted over 55 commissioned portraits superior to other portraits being done at the time.[1] In 1903, he painted his portrait of the Countess of Minto. In the late 1900s, Harris returned to painting in an Impressionist-influenced mode after purchasing the first book in English on the subject, The French Impressionists (1860–1900) by Camille Mauclair. (His copy of the book is in the Confederation Centre Art Gallery).[3] Over the next eight years, he began to incorporate small touches of vibrant colour and the fluid brushwork of the Impressionists, while still maintaining the formal characteristics of academic portraiture.[4]

He was a founding member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1880[5] (RCA) and elected president of the RCA in 1893. In 1902, he was created a C.M.G.,[6] the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, a British order of chivalry awarded to men and women who hold high office or who render extraordinary or important non-military service in a foreign country, which can also be conferred for important or loyal service in relation to foreign and Commonwealth affairs. As president of the RCA in 1904, he helped spearhead the organization and installation of the Canadian exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. At the exposition, he received the Commemorative Diploma and Gold Medal of Honour for Distinguished Service in Art.[7]

An important collection of his works is housed at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, P.E.I.. His painting, A Meeting of the School Trustees, illustrating a confrontation between PEI teacher Kate Henderson and her school's trustees, appeared on a Canadian stamp in 1980 and was dramatized by a Heritage Minutes.

He married Elizabeth (Bessie) Putnam in 1885 but the couple had no children. He was the brother of the architect William Critchlow Harris and took an active interest in the artwork of his cousin Kathleen Morris.[8]

In 1986-1987, the exhibition Robert Harris, 1849-1919, was circulated in Wales by the National Museum of Wales. The first language of the catalogue was Welsh, the second English.

Selected works[]

  • Paintings by Robert Harris

  • John A. Macdonald

  • Conference at Québec in 1864, to settle the basics of a union of the British North American Provinces, also known as The Fathers of Confederation. The original painting was destroyed when the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings was consumed by fire in 1916.

  • A Meeting of the School Trustees 1885, National Gallery of Canada

  • Countess of Minto

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Williamson 1967, p. n.p..
  2. ^ Prakash 2015, pp. 643-647.
  3. ^ Mauclair, Camille (1903). The French Impressionists (1860–1900). Duckworth.
  4. ^ Prakash 2015, p. 643.
  5. ^ Records of the Founding of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts. Toronto: Globe Printing Co. 1879–80. p. 16.
  6. ^ Bradfield, Helen (1970). Art Gallery of Ontario: the Canadian Collection Collection. Toronto: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0070925046. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
  7. ^ Williamson, Moncrieff (1970). Robert Harris, 1849-1919: An Unconventional Biography. p. 180-183. ISBN 9780771090103. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
  8. ^ Barbara Meadowcroft, Painting Friends: The Beaver Hall Women Painters, 1999

Bibliography[]

External links[]

Cultural offices
Preceded by
Otto Reinhold Jacobi 		President of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
1893–1906 		Succeeded by
George Agnew Reid
Retrieved from ""