TABLE OF CONTENTS
J.W.L. Forster Collection:
Finding Aid
Summary |
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| Title: | J.W.L. Forster Collection. | |
| Dates: | – 1931. | |
| Quantity: | – 0.1 cm of textual records. | |
Biographical Sketch
John Wycliffe Lowes Forster, Canadian portrait painter, was born in Norval, Ontario in 1850. He began his artistic training in Toronto in 1869 as an apprentice to the portrait painter John Wesley Bridgman (1833-1902). In 1871 he was awarded first prize in the amateur class at the annual fair of Upper Canada Agricultural Society for his portrait of Bridgman. In 1879 Forster studied for three months at the South Kensington Art School in London with Canadian landscape painter Charles Stuart Millard (1837-1917). A short time later, he enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he studied for the next three years under Gustave Boulanger (1824-1888), William Adolph Bouguereau (1825-1905), Tony Robert-Fleury (1837-1911), and Carolus-Duran (1838-1917). Upon returning to Canada in 1883, Forster set up his own studio in Toronto, became a member of the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy, and quickly gained aclaim for his portraits of notable people, including Bliss Carmen (1861-1929), Timothy Eaton (1834-1907), Sir Wilfred Laurier (1841-1919), and Queen Victoria (1819-1901).
Throughout his life, Forster was a strong supporter of the work of the United Church. As a delegate to the World's Sunday School Convention in Tokyo in 1920, he was commissioned to paint the portrait of the Emperor and Empress of Japan. In 1931, he was approached to paint the portrait of Dr. Daniel Norman (active 1897-ca.1935), one of the missionaries with whom he stayed while travelling in Japan. G.W. Lynd, pastor of the Temperanceville United Church in Aurora, Ontario, Norman's boyhood church, initiated a subscription project to pay for the portrait and Forster, in part, donated his services. Forster died in Toronto in 1938.
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Scope and Contents
The collection consists of the letter initiating the subscription project, the subscription list circulated by Pastor G.W. Lynd, and four letters sent by J.W.L. Forster to Pastor Lynd regarding Dr. Daniel Norman's portrait.
Source of supplied title proper: Title based on contents of fonds.
Immediate source of acquisition: Donated to the National Gallery of Canada by Fred Schaeffer, 1974.
Terms governing use and reproduction: Permission to reproduce or publish material from the J.W.L. Forster Collection must be obtained from the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.
Finding aids: Box list available.
Related material: Examples of Forster's portraits can be found in the National Gallery of Canada's collection of Canadian painting.
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Index Terms |
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| Names: | ||
| Forster, J.W.L., 1850-1938 | ||
| Lynd, G.W. | ||
| Norman, Daniel | ||
| Document Types: | ||
| Correspondence. | ||
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Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
[Title of item], J.W.L. Forster Collection, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.
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Contact Information
Reference Services
Library and Archives
National Gallery of Canada
380 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 9N4
T 613-714-6000 ext. 6323
[email protected]
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Box List
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||||
| Box 1 | File 1 | Dr. Daniel Norman portrait - Subscription list and letter | |||||||||||
| File 2 | Dr. Daniel Norman - Forster letters | ||||||||||||
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