Homer Watson

{{Infobox artist

| name = Homer Watson

| image = Homer Watson.jpg

| caption =

| birth_name = Homer Ransford Watson

| birth_date = {{birth date|1855|01|14}}

| birth_place = Doon, Canada West

| death_date = {{death date and age|1936|05|27|1855|1|14}}

| death_place = Doon, Ontario

| nationality =

| field = Painter

| spouse = Roxanna Bechtel (m. 1881)

| training =

| movement = Barbizon School, founding member Canadian Art Club (1907-1915) and first president (1907-1911)

| works = The Flood Gate (1900)

| patrons =

| influenced =

| awards =

}}

Homer Ransford Watson {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|RCA|size=100%}} (January 14, 1855 – May 30, 1936) was a Canadian landscape painter. He has been characterized as the painter who first painted Canada as Canada, rather than as a pastiche of European painting. He was a member and president (1918–1922) of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, as well as a founding member and first president (1907–1911) of the Canadian Art Club. Although Watson had almost no formal training, by the mid-1920s he was well known and admired by Canadian collectors and critics, his rural landscape paintings making him one of the central figures in Canadian art from the 1880s until the First World War.{{harvnb|Foss|2018}}

Life and career

File:Homer Watson birthplace, 1866.jpg

Homer Ransford Watson was born on 14 January 1855, in Doon, Ontario, the second of Ransford and Susan Mohr Watson's five children.{{sfn|Foss|2018|pp=3–4}} A small village founded in the 1830s at the junction of Schneider's Creek and the Grand River, Doon's earliest documented population was 150 in the 1871 census.{{sfn|Bloomfield|1995|p=201}} Watson descended from German Mennonite settlers who arrived in Ontario in the early 19th century.{{sfn|Foss|2018|p=4}} His father, a mill and factory owner, died in 1861 when Watson was six years old.{{harvnb|Watson|1987|p=144}}: mill and factory owner; {{harvnb|Foss|2018|p=4}}: died in 1861. Following Ransford's death, the family's only source of income was Susan's work as a seamstress.{{sfn|Foss|2018|p=4}} Ransford left behind a library of books that Watson studied from and influenced his early drawings.{{sfn|Watson|1987|p=4}} A gift of a set of paints from an aunt made him decide to become an artist. He sought the advice of Thomas Mower Martin in Toronto, and moved there in 1874.{{sfn|Watson|1987|p=144}} He copied works at the Toronto Normal School and was mainly self-taught, but met other artists in Toronto (e.g., Lucius O'Brien) while working part-time at the Notman-Fraser photography studio.

In 1876, Watson traveled to New York State, and may have seen the work of painter George Inness. Although he never met Inness, he was influenced by the Hudson River School and painted along the Hudson and Susquehanna Rivers in the Adirondack Mountains. In 1880, the Marquis of Lorne opened the first exhibition of the Canadian Academy; Watson's work was displayed and he was elected an Associate member. That same year, he sold a major work, The Pioneer Mill, to the Marquis for Queen Victoria.

Watson married Roxanna (Roxa for short) Bechtel in 1881, and the couple moved into the Drake House at Doon. They bought the house in 1883, and he kept the house as his permanent residence until his death. Watson painted the rural Grand River countryside for most of his artistic life. He was noted for his commitment to Canadian landscapes: he said at a lecture on "The Methods of Some Great Landscape Painters" at the University of Toronto in 1900: "there is at the bottom of each artistic conscience a love for the land of their birth... no immortal work has been done which has not as one of its promptings for its creation a feeling its creator had of having roots in his native land and being a product of its soil".{{cite book |last1=Foss |first1=Brian |title=Into the New Century: Painting, c.1880-1914, The Visual Arts in Canada: The Twentieth Century |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford |location=Canada |pages=22, n.6 who quotes from Appendix 1 of Gerald Noonan, Refining the Real Canada: Homer Watson's Spiritual Landscape. Waterloo: mlr editions canada, 1997|url=https://search.library.utoronto.ca/search?N=0&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nu=p_work_normalized&Np=1&Ntt=visual%20arts%20in%20canada%3A%20twentieth%20century&Ntk=Anywhere |access-date=2020-09-04}}

The artists with whom Watson was most often associated were the English landscape painter John Constable (1776–1837) and such French Barbizon artists as Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867), Charles-François Daubigny (1817–1878), Narcisse Díaz de la Peña (1807–1876), Constant Troyon (1810–1865), Jules Dupré (1811–1889), and tangentially Jean-François Millet (1814–1875) because Watson didn`t share Millet`s focus on the nobility of human figures. The thematic, formal, and psychological similarities between Watson, John Constable, and the Barbizon artists were strong. They were emotionally and psychologically devoted to landscapes with whose topography and inhabitants they were intimately familiar.{{cite book |last1=Foss |first1=Brian |title="Barbizon Aesthetics in Canadian Landscape Painting". Embracing Canada: Landscapes from Krieghoff to the Group of Seven |date=2015 |publisher=Vancouver Art Gallery and Black Dog Publishing |others= Ian M. Thom (ed.)|location=Vancouver and London, Eng. |pages=42ff|url=https://librarysearch.library.utoronto.ca/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Embracing%20Canada:%20Landscapes%20from%20Krieghoff%20to%20the%20Group%20of%20Seven.&tab=LibraryCatalog&search_scope=UTL&vid=01UTORONTO_INST:UTORONTO&offset=0 |access-date=2021-05-20}}

In 1882, while touring Canada, Oscar Wilde first noted the similarity between Watson and Constable, dubbing him the "Canadian Constable" due to the similarity between Watson's work and of the great English landscape painter. Wilde and Watson may have met at public events. There may have been letters between the two men which could be in a private collection or lost.

Watson moved to England in 1887 for three years (1887–1890), and further established his reputation. Over the next few years, his works became increasingly popular among collectors and received prizes at expositions across North America. In 1902, at the height of his British career, he exhibited The Flood Gate. In 1904, he won a bronze medal at the Canadian exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri.{{cite web |last1=Williamson |first1=Moncrieff |title=Robert Harris: An Unconventional Biography|pages=180–183 |url=https://search.library.utoronto.ca/search?N=0&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nu=p_work_normalized&Np=1&Ntt=Williamson%2C%20Moncrieff%20(1970).%20Robert%20Harris%201849-1919%20An%20Unconventional%20Biography&Ntk=Anywhere |website=search.library.utoronto.ca |publisher=McClelland & Stewart, Toronto |access-date=2021-05-02}}

He campaigned to save the Waterloo County woodlands that he had preserved in his landscapes. Due to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 in which he lost his savings, he was forced to hand over many works from his personal collection to the local savings & loans firm, which held them for security and then tried to sell the paintings itself.

Homer Watson died in Doon on May 30, 1936.{{cite web|last1=Harper|first1=J. Russell|title=Homer Ransford Watson|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/homer-ransford-watson|website=The Canadian Encyclopedia|publisher=Historica Canada|access-date=29 March 2017|language=en|date=25 May 2008}}

Legacy

File:Homer Watson House front.jpg.]]

Many of Watson's works are still on display at his old house, which he and his sister had transformed into a small art gallery. Homer Watson's letters, his unpublished manuscripts, and his paintings, drawings, and prints document the issues that most interested him as an artist. Of his concerns, the commemoration of southern Ontario's pioneers and early settlers and the visual expression of Canadian regional and national identities locate Watson firmly within the milieu of many of his fellow artists of the time. In addition to these priorities, his dedication to safeguarding the natural environment was exceptional and far-sighted.

On May 27, 2005, Canada Post issued a pair of postage stamps in his honour. Two stamps of denominations 50 and 85 cents were issued depicting two of his works, Down in the Laurentides and The Flood Gates.{{cite web|title=Art Canada: Homer Watson (1855-1936)|url=http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/collecting/stamps/archives/2005/2005_may_homerwatson.jsf|publisher=Canada Post|access-date=13 October 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017031709/http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/collecting/stamps/archives/2005/2005_may_homerwatson.jsf|archive-date=17 October 2013}}

An arterial road in Kitchener, which connects the Doon area to the main parts of the city, is named Homer Watson Boulevard.

Watson has been designated a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada.{{Cite web |url=http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/default_eng.aspx |title=Directory of Federal Heritage Designations |website=Parks Canada |access-date=2022-05-29}}

Watson's former house in Doon, now the Homer Watson House & Gallery, was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1980.[http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/lhn-nhs/det_E.asp?oqSID=0416&oqeName=Homer+Watson+House+%2F+Doon+School+of+Fine+Arts&oqfName=Maison+Homer%2DWatson+%2F+%C9cole+des+beaux%2Darts+Doon Homer Watson House / Doon School of Fine Arts], Directory of Designations of National Historic Significance of Canada[http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=1143&pid=0 Homer Watson House / Doon School of Fine Arts], National Register of Historic Places

Selected works

File:Homer Watson - Old Mill and Stream - 1879.jpg|Old Mill and Stream 1879

File:The Castellated Cliff 1879.jpg|The Castellated Cliff 1879

File:The Stone Road 1881.jpg|The Stone Road 1881

File:Down in the Laurentides 1882.jpg|Down in the Laurentides 1882

File:Near the Close of a Stormy Day 1884.jpg|Near the Close of a Stormy Day 1884

File:Nut Gatherers in the Forest 1900.jpg|Nut Gatherers in the Forest 1900

File:The Flood Gate 1901.jpg|The Flood Gates 1901

File:Rushing Stream by Moonlight 1905.jpg|Rushing Stream by Moonlight 1905

File:Pink Bush 1906.jpg|Pink Bush 1906

File:Study for Red Oak 1917.jpg|Study for Red Oak 1917

File:Moonlight, Waning Winter 1924.jpg|Moonlight, Waning Winter 1924

File:Mountain River 1932.jpg|Mountain River 1932

References

Sources

{{cite book |last1=Bloomfield |first1=Elizabeth |title=Waterloo Township Through Two Centuries |date=1995 |location=Kitchener |publisher=Waterloo Historical Society |isbn=0-9699719-0-7}}
{{cite book |last1=Foss |first1=Brian |title=Homer Watson: Life & Work |date=2018 |publisher=Art Canada Institute |location=Toronto |isbn=978-1-4871-0183-1 |url=https://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/homer-watson/ |language=en}}
{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Muriel |title=Homer Watson: The Man of Doon |year=1988 |orig-year=1937 |publisher=Summerhill Press |location=Toronto |isbn=0-920197-58-2}}
{{cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=Jennifer C. |title=Homer Watson in the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery |journal=RACAR: Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review |date=1987 |volume=14 |issue=1/2 |pages=143–150 |doi=10.7202/1073457ar |jstor=42630360 |issn=0315-9906|doi-access=free }}{{Subscription or libraries}}

External links

[http://www.homerwatson.on.ca/ Homer Watson House & Gallery]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070207092626/http://www.mta.ca/faculty/arts/canadian_studies/english/about/study_guide/artists/homer_watson.html Biography at Mount Allison University]
[http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/pm_v2.php?lg=English&ex=00000563&fl=0&id=exhibit_home Virtual Museum on Homer Watson]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927201038/http://www.londonmuseum.on.ca/Historical/First_Ren/watson.html London Ontario Museum on Homer Watson]
[http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/discipline/SpecColl/archives/watson.html University of Waterloo Library Holdings on Homer Watson]
[https://www.gallery.ca/library/ngc081.html Homer Watson fonds] at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

{{Succession box

| title = President of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts

| years = 1918-1922

| with =

| before = William Brymner

| after = George Horne Russell

}}

Category:1855 births

Category:1936 deaths

Category:19th-century Canadian painters

Category:Canadian male painters

Category:20th-century Canadian painters