LIONELLEMOINEFITZGERALD
(1890 - 1956)

Fitzgerald, a member of the Group of Seven, was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 1956, he died of a heart attack there. His career accomplishments grew slowly but steadily, in comparison with some of the other artists of his time, like Emily Carr.

By the time he was 22, he was painting full-time. He exhibited his work with the Royal Canadian Academy in 1913. He developed his style carefully and with painstaking effort and was influenced greatly by the French Impressionists. By the time he was 29, his style had developed to such a high level that drew attention.

Fitzgerald was most interested in landscape painting. He studied with A.S. Yezthelyi. In 1921, he had his first solo exhibit at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. His work was commendable. He attained a position teaching at the Winnipeg School of Art. Within four years, he was promoted to the Principal of the school. Because he worked slowly, he wasn't influenced by the fashions and changing fads of the artistic community.

LeMoine Fitzgerald was very influential to Bertram Brooker's development and direction, and meanwhile, Brooker was instrumental in Fitzgerald's success by arranging meetings between Fitzgerald and MacDonald. Fitzgerald was to replace J.E.H. MacDonald in the Group of Seven when he died in 1932.

The most important issue in Fitzgerald's career was the painting itself. He only became successful as an artist by studying carefully. The landscapes near home were very familiar and were favourite subjects of LeMoine's paintings.

One of his main challenges, like other prairie painters, was to capture in paint, the dominating sense of the open space in the prairies. For him, the painting was more than an image, it was a real thing, an expression of a real object or scene. He pictured the entire object, not just one view of it, to create realism.

For a time, he experimented with still-life and watercolour. He took an almost academic outlook to developing his style and his hard work and skill in expression made him a great painter.

At Silver Heights (1931)






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