Exceptional Materials and Notable Subject Collections
Kodak
The Kodak Collection comprises 857 items assembled from the Research Laboratories of Eastman Kodak Company, supplemented by duplicates from the libraries of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House. The collection covers every aspect of photographic literature, with emphasis on early editions of technical treatises and manuals. Titles in English, French and German record technical advances and historical developments at every step in the evolution of photography; documentation of the decades 1880 to 1910 is particularly rich. In addition to classics in the field, the collection includes very rare material and books with distinguished provenance, such as forty volumes from the library of Josef Maria Eder (1855-1944).
Franklin Carmichael
Franklin Carmichael (1890-1945), a founding member of the Group of Seven, was remembered by A.Y. Jackson (1882-1974), in his autobiography, as "a lyrical painter of great ability and a fine craftsman." Carmichael was born in Orillia, Ontario. By 1911 he was working in Toronto, for the commercial art firm, Grip Limited, which served as a catalyst for his introduction to artists such as J.E.H. MacDonald (1873-1932), Arthur Lismer (1885-1969), Tom Thomson (1877-1917) and Lawren Harris (1885-1970). At this time Carmichael enrolled in evening courses at the Ontario College of Art with G.A. Reid (1860-1947) and William Cruikshank (1849-1922), and at the Toronto Technical School with Gustav Hahn (1866-1962). Carmichael continued his education in Europe from 1913 to 1914, attending the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, where Arthur Lismer and Fred Varley (1881-1969) had studied. In 1915 he married Ada Lillian Went. Following his marriage, he worked in Toronto for the commercial art firm, Rous and Mann, where he met A.J. Casson (1898-1992).
Carmichael worked in various media: painting, drawing, printmaking and other graphic arts. He held memberships in numerous art societies, including the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (founding member, 1925; president, 1932-1934), Canadian Group of Painters (founding member, 1933), and Ontario Society of Artists (president, 1937-1940). From 1932 until his death in 1945 Carmichael was a distinguished teacher at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto. He was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy in 1935, and became a full academician in 1938.
The Library of Franklin Carmichael is the only book collection of a member of the Group of Seven to have remained intact. It consists of approximately 580 books, exhibition catalogues, periodicals and technical manuals, which are mainly nineteenth and twentieth century imprints. In addition, the Library includes sixteen illuminated manuscript leaves, produced in France, England, Italy and Flanders between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Carmichael was an avid reader, and the Library is broad in subject scope, reflecting interests in art history, theory and technique, as well as theosophy, history, literature, music and gardening. The Library includes examples of juvenilia, as well as volumes with inscriptions and annotations by Carmichael and association copies, such as Annie Besant's Theosophy (1912), inscribed, "Frank C from Lawren Harris."
The National Gallery of Canada received the Library of Franklin Carmichael in three parts, donated in 1995, 1996 and 1997. The illuminated manuscript leaves were donated to the National Gallery in 1997.
Four item-level finding aids provide bibliographic descriptions of titles in the Library of Franklin Carmichael. Records for items in parts one and three are entered in the online catalogue of the Library and Archives.
Charles Fraser Comfort and Louise Comfort
Charles Fraser Comfort (1900-1994) was a distinguished Canadian painter and Director of the National Gallery of Canada (1960-1965). Born in Scotland, Comfort came to Winnipeg in 1912. He worked in the office of F.H. Brigden, R.C.A., and studied at the Winnipeg School of Art. He then continued his studies under Robert Henri, at the Art Students' League, New York. Comfort returned to Canada in 1923, and married Louise Irene Chase (1902-1998) the following year. They lived in Toronto, where Comfort established a commercial studio, and taught at the Ontario College of Art (1935-1938) and at the University of Toronto (1938-1960). During the second World War, Comfort served in Europe as an official war artist. Following the war, he returned to his teaching position in Toronto and continued working as an artist. During this period, he studied seventeenth-century Dutch master techniques in the Netherlands, contributed articles to Canadian journals, and published his war memoir. In 1960, Comfort was appointed Director of the National Gallery of Canada. At the conclusion of his five-year term, he resumed painting.
During a long and distinguished career, Charles Comfort enjoyed the friendship of Canadian artists, writers and critics. He held memberships in numerous art societies, including the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (charter member, 1926), Canadian Society of Graphic Art, Ontario Society of Artists, Canadian Group of Painters (founding member, 1933), and Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (president, 1957-1960). Among many honours, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1972.
The Library of Charles and Louise Comfort consists of more than 800 books, exhibition catalogues and periodicals, published mainly since the beginning of the twentieth century. The Library is rich in association copies, inscriptions, annotations and related ephemera, such as greeting cards and personal letters. The Comfort Library includes examples of Canadian illustrated books, which are among the chief collecting interests of the National Gallery of Canada. Artists such as Edwin Holgate (1892-1977), Laurence Hyde (1914- ), Thoreau MacDonald (1901-1989) and others are represented.
In scope, the Library reflects the various interests of Charles and Louise Comfort. Visual arts are strongly represented, including the history and theory of art, methods and materials in painting, and studies of individual artists. The second World War is a prominent subject, including histories, memoirs, works of literature and catalogues of exhibitions inspired by the War.
The National Gallery of Canada received the Library of Charles and Louise Comfort in two parts. Part one was donated in 1996 by Charles Comfort's widow, Louise Comfort, now deceased. Part two was in the possession of Charles and Louise Comfort's daughter, Ruth Comfort Jackson, who died in 1998. Ruth Jackson's husband, Mr. Ray Jackson, donated Part two to the National Gallery of Canada in 1999.
Records for items in the Library of Charles and Louise Comfort are entered in the online catalogue of the Library and Archives. Two item-level finding aids are also available.
Carl Fellman Schaefer
Carl Fellman Schaefer (1903-1995) was a distinguished Canadian artist, noted not only for his work as a painter and printmaker, but also for his service as an official war artist, and his role as a teacher and mentor. Born in Hanover, Ontario, Schaefer is often identified as a regionalist, based on his attachment to the rural landscape, which provided inspiration for his work. From 1921 to 1924, he studied at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto, under the direction of J.E.H. MacDonald (1873-1932), Arthur Lismer (1885-1969), G.A. Reid (1860-1947), Robert Holmes (1861-1930) and others. Schaefer began teaching at Toronto's Central Technical School in 1930, and subsequently held a number of teaching positions, including long tenure at the Ontario College of Art (1948-1970).
Schaefer had many friends among painters and poets. From his student days, he was closely associated with members of the Group of Seven, and occasionally exhibited with them. When the Group disbanded in 1933, Schaefer became a charter member of its successor, the Canadian Group of Painters (1936). Schaefer's memberships in other art associations include the Canadian Society of Graphic Art (1932), Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (1933), Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (associate 1949; academician 1964; companion 1972), and Royal Society of Arts (1977). Among numerous honours, he received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1941, the first awarded to a Canadian. In 1978 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.
The Library of Carl Fellman Schaefer consists of more than 1,700 titles, which are mainly twentieth century imprints. Material types include books, periodicals, catalogues of exhibitions, permanent collections and art sales, pamphlets, manuals and other technical materials (e.g. paper sample books), and printed ephemera (e.g. exhibition announcements). In subject scope, the Library reflects not only Schaefer's vocation as an artist, but also the milieu in which he worked. His Library encompasses art history and theory in Canada and abroad, artistic methods and materials, and studies of individual artists. The Library provides insights into Schaefer's service as a war artist (RCAF 1943-1946), his years as a teacher, his longstanding friendships, and his interests in history, literature and architecture.
The Library is rich in annotations and inscriptions which highlight Schaefer's associations with Canadian poets George Johnston (b. 1913) and E.J. Pratt (1882-1964), the critic Walter Abell (1897-1956), and a host of artists, such as Thoreau MacDonald (1901-1989; represented by more than 60 association titles), Charles Comfort (1900-1994), Bertram Brooker (1888-1955), Louis Muhlstock (b.1904) and others.
The National Gallery of Canada received the Library of Carl Fellman Schaefer in four parts, donated between 1996 and 1998 by Schaefer's sons, Mark and Paul Schaefer.
Four item-level finding aids provide bibliographic descriptions of titles in the Library of Carl Fellman Schaefer. Records for items in parts one, two, and four are entered in the online catalogue of the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.
Fritz Brandtner
Fritz Brandtner (1896-1969) arrived in Canada in the 1920s, an accomplished artist influenced by European Modernism and German Expressionism. His library consists of 172 books, exhibition catalogues, periodicals, notebooks and binders of teaching materials. The collection is annotated throughout with notes, marginalia and original sketches. Many volumes have decorative wrappers, executed and titled by the artist.
Fritz Brandtner (1896-1969) arrived in Canada in the 1920s, an accomplished artist influenced by European Modernism and German Expressionism. His library consists of 172 books, exhibition catalogues, periodicals, notebooks and binders of teaching materials. The collection is annotated throughout with notes, marginalia and original sketches. Many volumes have decorative wrappers, executed and titled by the artist.
The Fritz Brandtner Library was donated to the National Gallery of Canada by his friend Paul Kastel, of the Kastel Gallery, in 2006.
Records for items in the Fritz Brandtner Library are entered in the online catalogue of the Library and Archives.
C.W. Jefferys
A collection of over 400 titles related to Canadian artist, illustrator and teacher, Charles William Jefferys (1869-1951), assembled by Toronto art historian Robert H. Stacey, Jefferys’ grandson. The collection contains volumes once in Jefferys’ possession, variant editions of books illustrated by Jefferys and published during his lifetime, as well as books and exhibition catalogues that include reference to Jefferys or reproductions of his work. Robert Stacey has written extensively on Canadian art, including publication on Jefferys’ work for the National Gallery of Canada, Agnes Etherington Art Centre and Mendel Art Gallery.
J. Russell Harper
J. Russell Harper was a distinguished art historian, who served as Curator of Canadian art at the National Gallery of Canada from 1959 to 1963.
Harper was born at Caledonia, Ontario. He studied at the Ontario College of Art (1938-40), then served with the Royal Canadian Air Force (1941-45). Following the second World War, Harper earned degrees in Art and Archaeology from the University of Toronto (BA 1948; MA 1950). He held positions at the Royal Ontario Museum (1948-52), New Brunswick Museum (1952-56), Lord Beaverbrook Art Collection (1957-59), National Gallery of Canada (1959-63), McCord Museum, McGill University (1965-68) and Concordia University (1965-79). Among numerous honours, he was awarded a Royal Society of Canada Fellowship for Research in Paris (1956), and became a a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1974), as well as an Officer of the Order of Canada (1974).
Harper is cited as "a determined pioneer in the history of art in Canada." His contribution to the collections and exhibition programs of Canadian institutions, his authoritative publications in the history of Canadian art, and his work as educator and champion of Canadian visual culture mark him as a leader in the new discipline which he helped to create and define. Among his many publications, Painting in Canada: A History (1966; revised edition 1977) was the most ambitious and comprehensive study of Canadian art to date. This landmark title was followed by other seminal works, including Early Painters and Engravers in Canada (1970), Paul Kane's Frontier (1971), and Krieghoff (1979).
During his long and distinguished career, J. Russell Harper assembled a comprehensive library of some 3,000 titles, encompassing visual arts, architecture, archaeology, graphic arts, decorative arts, photography, folklore, literature, history and other subjects related to cultural development. His library reflects his scholarly interests and commitments, and contains many of the ancillary materials he used in research for his own publications. Material types include books, exhibition catalogues, journals and newspapers, as well as printed ephemera. The library is particularly rich in local history of the Maritimes, Québec and Ontario, including publications such as reports of societies, religious orders and archival repositories, early collection guides and catalogues, souvenir albums, programs and prize lists from community events such as agricultural fairs and exhibitions, and early Canadian publications on art instruction and technique. The era of exploration and discovery of Canada is also represented, with numerous classic studies in early editions.
The Library of J. Russell Harper was donated to the National Gallery of Canada in 1992. An item-level finding aid is available.
Doris and Jack Shadbolt
Doris Shadbolt (1918-2003) had a distinguished career as an educator, curator and historian of Canadian art. Following studies at the University of Toronto, she worked at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, the Metropolitan Museum, and, for more than twenty-five years at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Her husband, Jack Shadbolt (1909-1998), was a celebrated Canadian painter and longtime teacher at the Vancouver School of Art. The National Gallery of Canada Library holds 381 books, exhibition catalogues and periodicals, which represent a sampling from their extensive collection of reference and research materials.
Sandra Buhai Barz
The Library of Sandra Buhai Barz was assembled as a working research collection devoted to the arts and culture of the North. The Library consists of more than 1,500 titles, including books, exhibition catalogues, periodicals, sales catalogues, technical reports, pamphlets, exhibition announcements and other printed ephemera, as well as unpublished materials such as research files. While focussed on the post-1949 phase of Canadian Inuit art, the Library includes important resources in circumpolar Arctic peoples and arts, and spans that history from four thousand years ago to the present day.
Bruce Russell
Bruce Russell is an independent art historian and curator. His library on male homoerotic art covers the tradition, from the late nineteenth century photographs of Wilhelm von Gloeden to late twentieth century exhibition catalogues, biography, theory and criticism on gay male art and artists. Bruce Russell was curator of the 1999 exhibition Golden Boys: Naturalism and Artifice in Homoerotic Photography, 1870-1970, held at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia.
Virgil Burnett
Virgil Burnett (1928-2012) was an artist, author, teacher and founder of the Pasdeloup Press. Burnett received his undergraduate education at Columbia University, New York, where he majored in Painting. After military service during the Korean War, he took a Master’s Degree in Art History at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Art History at the University of Paris in 1956-1957, and remained in Europe until 1961, drawing painting and travelling. In Paris, Burnett worked with Maurice Darantière, a distinguished master printer and publisher of fine books, whose wide acquaintance included Gertrude Stein, James Joyce and many others. Darantière exhibited Burnett’s early drawings at the Hôtel Mansart de Sagonne, an old building in the Marais, where he had his home and studio. He encouraged the young artist to take his vocation as a dessinateur seriously and soon Burnett received commissions, such as cover illustrations for Penguin paperbacks, which provided broad exposure for his drawings. From 1973 to 2012 Burnett lived in Stratford, Ontario, taught at the University of Waterloo, produced publications with the Pasdeloup Press imprint, and created a remarkable oeuvre of writing and illustration.
The collection surveys more than forty years of Burnett’s activity as a publisher, writer and illustrator. It consists of more than 200 items, including Pasdeloup Press imprints since its inception in the 1960s, examples of Burnett’s own writing and illustration, original prints, drawings and sketchbooks related to the publications, handwritten notes with the artist’s comments, and printed ephemera.
Vernon K. Gill
Vernon Kingsley Gill (1892-1970), of Regina, Saskatchewan, was the younger brother of Eric Gill, a well-known British sculptor, engraver, and writer active during the first half of the twentieth century. Throughout his life, Vernon Gill devoted considerable effort to assembling books and other materials documenting the career of his eldest brother. He was assisted by his twin brother Evan R. Gill, author of the Bibliography of Eric Gill (London: Cassell, 1953) and The Inscriptional Work of Eric Gill (London: Cassell, 1964).
The Vernon K. Gill Collection consists of 135 books and pamphlets, almost all by or about Eric Gill. Most of the publications have personal inscriptions, typically being presentation copies from Evan Gill to Vernon Gill. The collection includes 7 presentation copies inscribed by Eric Gill, 4 imprints of the Golden Cockerel Press, and 7 imprints of Hilary (Douglas) Pepler and the St. Dominic’s Press at Ditchling, Sussex, as well as a proof copy of the Bibliography of Eric Gill by Evan Gill.
The National Gallery of Canada received the Vernon K. Gill Collection as a donation from Evan Quick, the grandson of Vernon K. Gill.
Records for items in the Vernon K. Gill Collection are entered in the online catalogue of the Library and Archives. Included in the catalogued items are a number of pamphlets and broadsheets which have been mounted in scrapbook volumes forming part of the Vernon K. Gill fonds. An online finding aid of the fonds is in preparation.