Showing 149 results

Authority record
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Van Horne, William Cornelius, Sir

  • http://viaf.org/viaf/49308940
  • Person
  • 1843-1915

Sir William Cornelius Van Horne (1843-1915), principal builder of the Canadian Pacific Railway and prominent businessman, was an important collector of paintings and Japanese ceramics and an accomplished amateur painter. Born in Illinois, he worked for American railway companies in various capacities until 1882, when he was appointed general manager of Canadian Pacific Railway, the construction of which was completed under his direction. In 1888, Van Horne was elected president of the company, and in 1899, he became president of its board of directors. He retired from active work in the company in 1910. Van Horne incorporated the Cuba Company in 1900 following a visit to that country; under its operations he built and operated a railway, sugar plantations and hotels. In North America, Van Horne was executive or director of more than 40 companies, and was considered one of Canada’s most successful businessmen. William Van Horne married Lucy Adaline, daughter of Erastus Hurd of Galesburg, Illinois, in 1867. They had 3 children: Adaline (1868-1941), William (1871-1876), and Richard Benedict (1877-1931). The family lived principally in Montreal, and also had residences in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, and in Cuba. Van Horne was knighted (KCMG) in 1894. Sir William’s art collection is considered to have been the most prominent pre-First World War collection in Montreal. It contained Old Master and 19th-century European paintings and Japanese ceramics, and also featured ship models and European decorative arts. Van Horne lent regularly to the Montreal Art Association (precursor to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts) from 1887 to 1912. His reputation as a collector resulted in his appointment to the consultative committee of the Burlington Magazine in London from 1905 until his death in 1915. Following Sir William’s death, the bulk of his ceramics collection was left to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the art collection passed to the joint ownership of Lady Van Horne and her children Adaline and Richard Benedict, according to terms of Sir William’s will. Lady Van Horne died in 1929. Under the terms of her will, a portion of the art collection went to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the rest was shared among her children. Richard Benedict Van Horne died in 1931. His widow, Edith Molson, had no claim to any share in the remains of the art collection; subsequently she married R. Randolph Bruce. A fire at the Van Horne mansion in 1935 did not damage any paintings. Adaline Van Horne, who had been managing the collection through the 1930s, died unmarried and childless in 1941. Ownership of the collection then passed to Richard Benedict and Edith’s son William C.C. Van Horne (1907–1946) and his wife Margaret (d.1987), familiarly known as “Billie” (née Hannon). When William died, leaving no heir, ownership of the collection remained with his wife. Margaret Van Horne managed the art collection for over forty years, corresponding with art dealers and conservators in order to achieve optimal values for paintings. Numerous paintings were sold in several different auction sales over the course of this time. She continued to live in the Van Horne mansion until 1972. The house was demolished the following year to great protest in the architectural conservation community. When Margaret Van Horne died in 1987, the remainder of the collection passed to her brother Matthew Hannon. Upon Matthew Hannon’s death in 1988, the remainder of the art collection passed to his heirs.

Varley, Frederick Horsman

  • http://viaf.org/viaf/79427452
  • Person
  • 1881-1969

Frederick Horsman Varley, painter, was born in Sheffield, England in 1881. He studied at the Sheffield School of Art 1892–1900, and at the Koninklijk Akademie voor Shone Kunsten (Académie royale des beaux-arts) in Antwerp for the following two years. After working as an illustrator and art teacher in England, he immigrated to Canada and obtained work as a commercial illustrator in Toronto in 1912, the same year he first exhibited his art work at the Canadian National Exhibition. In 1914, Varley joined Tom Thomson, A.Y. Jackson and Arthur Lismer on sketching trip to Algonquin Park in Ontario. Some of his most famous works resulted from his association with these artists. He participated in the War Art program after the war in 1918 and was a founding member of the Group of Seven in 1920. Although he painted numerous landscapes, his interest lay more in portraiture, which he pursued during the 1920s. Varley moved to Vancouver in 1926 to teach at the School of Decorative and Applied Arts. His landscapes from this period are marked by fine draftsmanship, exotic colour and unusual vantage points. In 1933 he and J.W.G. Macdonald opened their own school, the British Columbia College of Arts, which closed in 1935. Varley lived subsequently in Ottawa and Montreal, returning in 1944 to Toronto. The Art Gallery of Ontario held a retrospective of his work in 1954. He died in Toronto in 1969. Varley was a member of the Arts and Letters Club, Toronto. His work is in numerous Canadian public collections.

Wainwright, Andy

  • http://viaf.org/viaf/49375577
  • Person
  • 1946-

J.A. Wainwright (1946- ) is a writer of poetry, fiction and non-fiction; and an emeritus Professor of English at Dalhousie University. He published Blazing Figures: A Life of Robert Markle (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press) in 2010.

Walker, Byron Edmund, Sir

  • http://viaf.org/viaf/48382637
  • Person
  • 1848-1924

Sir Edmund Walker was the president of the Canadian Bank of Commerce from 1907 to 1924, and a generous patron of the arts, helping to found and nurture many of Canada's cultural and educational institutions, including the University of Toronto, National Gallery of Canada, the Champlain Society, Appleby College, Art Gallery of Ontario and Royal Ontario Museum.

In 1910, King George V knighted Walker for his contributions to business and the arts.

Wegman, Jules Frederic

  • Person
  • 1865-1931

Jules Frederic Wegman was a Swiss-born architect who practiced in Canada at the firm of Darling and Pearson from 1905 until his death in 1931. Born in Neuchatel, he immigrated to Chicago at the age of 10 with his architect father, who undertook his training. At one point he was sent to Jerusalem to measure the city and its buildings, and his drawings were used to reproduce the city at the Worlds’ Fair at St. Louis in 1904. He spent several years at the Chicago firm of D.H. Burnham before moving to Toronto to join Darling and Pearson, where he became a partner in 1924. He worked on the Sun Life Building in Montreal, the North Toronto Station at Yonge and Summerhill, and the 1925 expansion of the Art Gallery of Toronto. He spoke at least four languages fluently and traveled widely, collecting photographs and drawings of architectural details. In 1911 he joined the Arts and Letters Club and lunched there regularly. In 1912 he was Chairman of the Toronto Chapter of the Ontario Association of Architects and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada shortly before his death.

White, George Harlow

  • http://viaf.org/viaf/95700918
  • Person
  • 1817-1887

painter; b. c. 1817 in London, England, the son of Elizabeth Harlow, an older sister of artist George Henry Harlow. George Harlow White entered the Royal Academy schools, London, on 2 Jan. 1836. On 17 Sept. 1871 he arrived in Quebec and is thought to have settled in Oro Township, Ont. from 1871 to 1876. White was elected a member of the Ontario Society of Artists in March 1873 and continued to exhibit with the society until 1886.

Whiten, Colette

  • http://viaf.org/viaf/58228014
  • Person
  • 1945-

Colette Whiten (Birmingham, England 1945- ) is a Toronto-based sculptor and educator.

Williamson, Elizabeth Fraser

  • http://viaf.org/viaf/33397297
  • Person
  • 1914-2000

Elizabeth Fraser Williamson (1914-2000) was a sculptor and educator who worked as artist in residence for many years at the Guild Inn, Scarborough.

Wilson, Scottie

  • http://viaf.org/viaf/10783852
  • Person
  • 1888-1972

‘Scottie’ Wilson (1888-1972) was born Louis Freeman in Glasgow, Scotland. He stayed in Canada ca. 1932-1945 and then lived in England. He was associated with Douglas Duncan and the Picture Loan Society chiefly during 1942-1945 and corresponded with Norman Endicott up to the time of his death in London at the age of 84.

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