William Brymner (1855-1925)

Professions: Painter; Illustrator

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  William Brymner (Canadian 1855 - 1925)

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  William Brymner 1855 - 1925 Canadian oil on board In the Selkirk Range

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  William Brymner (Canadian, 1855-1925)

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  William Brymner 1855-1925 PRCA OSA

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William Brymner Biography

(b Greenock, Strathclyde, 14 Dec 1855; d Wallasey, Ches, 18 June 1925). Canadian painter and teacher of Scottish birth. He moved with his family to the Eastern Townships, Quebec, in 1857. Brymner’s first training was under the architect Richard Cunningham Windeyer (1830–1900) in Montreal and later under Thomas Seaton Scott (1836–95), the Chief Architect for the Department of Public Works in Ottawa. He was one of the first Canadians to travel to Paris for artistic training, arriving there in 1878. He studied at the Académie Julian from 1878 to 1880, under William Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury, and again from 1883 to 1885 and in 1889. The subtle tonal relationships and simple composition of a Wreath of Flowers (1884; Ottawa, N.G.), his diploma piece for the Royal Canadian Academy, could be found in works throughout his career. He accepted the position of Master of the School of the Art Association of Montreal in 1886, teaching there until 1921. Brymner became a well-respected teacher, and his students included Clarence Gagnon, Prudence Heward and A. Y. Jackson. In 1892 Brymner was commissioned by Sir William Van Horne to paint a series of pictures of the Canadian Rockies for the Canadian Pacific Railway (e.g. Mount Cheops, Rogers Pass , 1898–9; Oshawa, McLaughlin Gal.). The resultant works are ambitious in scale, painted with vigour and a sense of the monumentality of nature. Brymner’s friendship with Maurice Cullen modified his early, disciplined approach to painting. He worked in both watercolour and oil and explored such subjects as landscape, figure study and genre scenes. Brymner was President of the Royal Canadian Academy from 1909 to 1917.

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