Robert R. Whale

Robert R. Whale (1805–1887) was an English-born Canadian painter.

Robert R. Whale
Born
Robert Reginald Whale

1805
Altarnun, Cornwall
Died1887 (aged 81–82)
Brantford, Ontario
NationalityCanadian
Known forPainter

Life and work

Robert Reginald Whale was born in Altarnun, Cornwall in 1805.[1] In 1852, Whale and his family emigrated to Canada, settling near Brantford, Ontario in Burford .[2][3] Whale was a prolific painter, supporting himself and his family through the sale of his artwork—a challenging task in that time and place.[4] He exhibited with the Ontario Society of Artists and with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts beginning in 1881.[2][5] Whale died in Brantford on 2 July 1887.[1]

Portrait of Hiram Capron by Robert Whale, c. 1852

Whale's portraits of local inhabitants show the influence of Joshua Reynolds, often posing the sitter looking directly out of the frame—the figure highlighted against a shadowed background.[2] Though his landscapes use elements familiar from the previous century in Europe—the distant vista framed by nearby trees, the use of small human figures in the middle distance to lead the viewer into the composition—his subject matter was completely rooted in his immediate surroundings.[6] His body of work forms a valuable historical record of early Canada.[2]

Works by Whale are in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada,[1] Art Gallery of Ontario,[7] Art Gallery of Hamilton,[8] Museum London,[9][10] Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts,[11] Montreal Museum of Fine Arts[12] and McCord Museum of Canadian History.[13]

Two of Whale's sons, John Claude Whale and Robert Heard Whale, as well as his nephew, John Hicks Whale, also were artists.

Notes
  1. "Robert R. Whale". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  2. Beatty, Linda Belshaw (1982). "Whale, Robert". Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11. University of Toronto/Université Laval. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  3. "View of Hamilton, 1853". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  4. Reid, Dennis (1973). A Concise History of Canadian Painting. Toronto: Oxford University Press. p. 76. ISBN 0195402065. Every year he and his sons, who were also painters, would cart crates of oil paintings to the Provincial Exhibition, always submitting the maximum number of pictures allowed in each of the categories. They relied on the prize money, for there was almost no market for art.
  5. "Members since 1880". Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
  6. Reid, Dennis (1973). A Concise History of Canadian Painting. p. 70. A few of these painters came to terms creatively with their new home and the painting of W.G.R. Hind, Daniel Fowler and Robert Whale, for instance, belongs to the history of Canadian not British art.
  7. "Paris, Canada West (1858): Whale, Robert Reginald". Artefacts Canada - Humanities. Government of Canada. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  8. "View of Dundas : Whale, Robert Reginald". Artefacts Canada - Humanities. Government of Canada. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  9. "Portrait of Catherine McClary". Museum London. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  10. "Portrait of Catherine McClary : Whale, Robert Reginald". Artefacts Canada - Humanities. Government of Canada. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  11. "untitled (portrait): Whale, Robert Reginald". Artefacts Canada - Humanities. Government of Canada. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  12. "Hamilton et le lac Ontario vus de Dundas: Whale, Robert Reginald". Artefacts Canada - Humanities. Government of Canada. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  13. "Indians with Dead Caribou & Bark Canoe at Big Rock, Memphremagog, 1868: Whale, Robert Reginald". Artefacts Canada - Humanities. Government of Canada. Retrieved 14 October 2013.

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