Thomas Mower Martin (Canadian 1838-1934)
Mount Cheops and The Hermit Range (Mountain Stream)
watercolour, signed and dated lower right “Mower Martin RCA 1904”
Born in London in 1838, Thomas Mower Martin sought a career in the military but decided to switch to an artistic career after attending Royal Academy Exhibitions. Considered mainly self-taught, he did receive training in England before immigrating to Canada in 1862 with his young wife. The couple originally settled in the Muskoka region before settling in York Mills from where he would commute to train to Toronto to his art studio. Along with Marmaduke Matthews, R.F. Gagen, and John Fraser, Mower Martin established the Ontario Society of Artists. He befriended the current Governor General John Campbell, Marquess or Lorne and his wife Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll and the Marchioness of Lorne. A painter herself, the Duchess took an interest in Mower Martin’s work which further led to led to the formation of the Royal Canadian Academy of which Mower Martin was a charter member. Publishing two books of his writings and paintings, he also illustrated Wilfred Campbell’s 1907 book “Canada”.
Always travelling in search for inspiration for his paintings, in 1887 Mower Martin made his first trip to Western Canada under the sponsorship of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He would make this trip approximately ten times over the next decade and was one of the first artists to capture the splendor of the Rocky Mountains and bring those images east.
Size: 19 h x 26 w in (with frame 29 ¼ x 35 ½ in)
ZJ21144
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