Robert Ford Gagen
Robert F. Gagen | |
|---|---|
.jpg) R. F. Gagen | |
| Born | Robert Ford Gagen May 10, 1847 London, England |
| Died | March 2, 1926 (aged 78) Toronto, Ontario |
| Nationality | English-born Canadian |
| Spouse | Jane Palmer (married 1873) |
Robert Ford Gagen RCA, also known as R. F. Gagen and as Robert F. Gagen,[1] (May 10, 1847 – March 02, 1926) was a Canadian painter of seascapes and landscapes. He was said by the editor of The Canadian Forum to be an art pioneer in Ontario and an institution in the Ontario Society of Artists.[2]
Biography[edit]
Robert Ford Gagen, was born in London, England. He came to Canada with his parents in 1862, and settled at Harpurhey, now Seaforth, in Huron County, Ontario.[3] William Nicoll Cresswell, an artist who lived near Seaforth, began to teach him drawing and painting in 1863.[4] Afterwards, Gagen went to Toronto and entered a painting class with George Gilbert.[5] In 1872, John Arthur Fraser hired Gagen to work at Notman and Fraser as a painter of water color portraits and miniatures on a photographic base: he remained there till 1878.[3][5][6]
Gagen painted sea and river studies and travelled widely to do so, favoring the Maritime Provinces and the shore of St. Lawrence in Quebec as well as Maine and Massachusetts in the United States. In 1890, he painted the Rockies and the Selkirks and in 1906, Scotland and Switzerland.[3] In 1910, he returned to painting the St. Lawrence.[3]
In 1918, the Canadian War Memorials Fund asked him to record the shipbuilding underway in Toronto, Ontario.[7] He exhibited his work in the many societies of which he was a member almost every year from the time he joined them. In 1927, a year after he died, there was an exhibition and sale of his work at Eaton's.[8]
His work is included today in exhibitions of Canadian art, such as Stone and Sky: Canada’s Mountain Landscape, at the Audain Art Museum in Whistler, B.C. in 2018[9] and is in many collections such as the National Gallery of Canada[1] and Art Gallery of Ontario.[10]
Honours and distinctions[edit]
Gagen was one of the founders of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1872.[3] He became the Society`s long-term secretary (1889-1926).[11] In 1880, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy; he became a full member in 1915.[12] In 1893, he was appointed one of the Canadian Fine Arts Commissioners to the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago. He acted in the same capacity at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901, where he was awarded honorable mention and at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904.[3] He was also Director of the Fine Arts Exhibitions for the Canadian National Exhibition, appointed from 1904 on, and Secretary of the Commission in 1912. He occupied both these posts till his death in 1926.[13] He was a member of the Board of the Central Ontario School of Art and Design, and later a member of the council of the Ontario College of Art.[3] He helped found the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour in 1926 and served as President (1925–1926), and was a charter member of the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, later serving as its president (1918–1920).[10]
Gagen was the author of Ontario Art Chronicle, ca. 1919, a typed manuscript in the collection of The Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.
Gagen died in Toronto on 2 March 1926. The Toronto Daily Star report of the funeral said, "The assemblage of so many painters, architects, writers, musicians, sculptors and university professors as well as associate members demonstrated how widespread was the influence of this remarkable old artist whose art and mentality had always kept the vigor of eternal youth."[14]
References[edit]
- ^ a b "R.F. Gagen". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ "Robert Ford Gagen". The Canadian Forum vol. 6 (April 1926), p. 201.
- ^ a b c d e f g Staley, John E. "Gagen, The Painter of the Sea". archive.macleans.ca. Maclean`s, January 1, 1913. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ Varley 1986, p. 16.
- ^ a b MacDonald 1977, p. 242.
- ^ "Canadian Art Chronology". ccca.concordia.ca. Concordia University, Montreal. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
- ^ Gagen, Robert Ford. "Collection". www.warmuseum.com. Canadian War Museum, Ottawa. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ An exhibition and sale of pictures by the late R.F. Gagen. World Catalogue. OCLC 77643053. Retrieved January 13, 2021 – via www.worldcat.org.
- ^ "Stone and Sky". www.gallerieswest.ca. Galleries West Magazine. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ a b Bradfield, Helen. Art Gallery of Ontario: the Canadian Collection. Art Gallery of Ontario. p. 126. OCLC 118037. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ Wallace, W. Stewart (ed.). "Encyclopedia of Canada, vol III". faculty.marianopolis.edu. Toronto, University Associates of Canada. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ "Members since 1880". Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on May 26, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ Pantazzi, Sybille. "Foreign Art at the Canadian National Exhibition 1905-1938". www.gallery.ca. National Gallery of Canada Bulletin 22, 1973. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ Toronto Daily Star 1926.
Bibliography[edit]
- Gagen, R.F. (1986). Appendix 1, William Nicoll Cresswell. London, Ontario: London Regional Art Gallery. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- MacDonald, Colin S. (1977). A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (Third ed.). Ottawa: Canadian Paperbacks Publishing. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- Varley, Christopher (1986). The Canadian Life, William Nicoll Cresswell. London, Ontario: London Regional Art Gallery. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
- "Funeral Service Held for Late Robert F. Gagen". Toronto Daily Star. March 5, 1926. p. 4 – via ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
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