Theresa McClary (c. 1870), oil on canvas, 83.6 x 65 cm., gift of the Estate of Miss Dorothy Gunn, London, 1982 Robert Reginald Whale (1805-1887) was born at Alternun, England and died at Brantford, Ontario. He is regarded as a self-taught artist who learned his craft copying at the National Gallery in London. England. With his large family, he emigrated to Brantford in 1852. Here his work was shown widely in the agricultural fairs and provincial exhibitions where he is recorded as a frequent prize winner. Whale painted primarily in oil using a wide variety of subjects: animal, genre, landscape, portrait and still life. His style attempts to represent the academic tradition of painting of Sir Joshua Reynolds and in landscape, he followed the concepts of the sublime and the picturesque.