Flowers – Thomas Mower Martin

Martin, Thomas Mower (1838-1934) 
Fleurs

Watercolour on paper, signed on lower right TM Martin

Dimension:
6″ x 9 1/2″
15.24 x 24.13 cm

Thomas Mower Martin RCA (1838–1934) was an English-born Canadian landscape painter dubbed “the father of Canadian art”

In 1862 Martin immigrated, with his wife, to Canada to become a farmer. After attempting to run an unsuccessful farm in rural Ontario he moved to Toronto and opened a studio. With Toronto as a base and after buying a home and a studio Martin went on painting excursions across  Canada, America and Europe. He painted mostly landscapes, animals in action, still life and some portraits. In 1887 he made his first trip to Western Canada under the sponsorship of the Canadian Pacific Railway and returned approximately ten times. He and his group were called “the Railway Painters”. Also included in these trips were Lucius O’Brien, Marmaduke Matthews, and Frederic Bell-Smith. A collection of articles entitled “Canada from an Artist’s Point of View” (1895) details some of his experiences in the west.

Martin was the first director of the Ontario Government Art School in Toronto where he taught John C Forbes and Lucius O’Brien. He was a founding member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1872 and a founding member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 1880. In 1907 Martin produced an important Canadian book called, Canada, with text by Wilfred Campbell. In 1909 Martin became a member of the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists.