Interior (c.1933)
EDWIN
HEADLEY
H
OLGATE
(1892 - 1977)
Holgate was in Russia during the outbreak of the First World War, so he returned to Canada and enlisted in the 5th Canadian Division Artillery in France (1916-1919). In 1920, he married Frances Rittenhouse. Before long, they were back in Canada, where Holgate opened his own studio in 1922. In 1931, he became the second member outside of Toronto to join the Group of Seven. When the Group disbanded in 1933, he was one of the founding members of the new group, The Canadian Group of Painters.
Edwin Holgate was mainly a portraitist, but he did have some tremendous accomplishments in landscapes. A trip to British Columbia inspired several large can vases of Native people and Totem Poles. He was then commissioned by the Canadian National Railway to decorate a room in the Chateau Laurier Hotel (Ottawa) in the style of the West Coast Indian art. The project was a great success. The room was painted with landscapes and the pillars were done as Totem Poles. The ceiling was barreled and the whole room was decorated with Indian masks and lamps, very true to the spirit of West Coast Indian design. At the time, it was said in a local newspaper article that " Holgate has certainly accomplished the most important piece of decoration ever entrusted to a Canadian artist with extraordinary success."
During the Second World War, he was a war artist, with the rank of "Flying Officer". He painted portraits and war scenes from a Canadian perspective to serve as war documents.
Holgate and F.H. Varley were the only members of the Group of Seven to paint nudes. His works were well known in many areas and were regarded as outstanding in their artistry and realism. He especially liked painting out-of-the-ordinary portraits, like Canadian bush inhabitants, rather than traditional portraits with no background landscape.
Holgate's work is shown in many art galleries and private collections around Canada, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, The National Gallery of Canada, the McMichael Gallery, University of Toronto, and many war collections.
Interior (c.1933) |
