Rowley Walter Murphy - Meet the Artists (Menu H to Z) - Canadian War Artists - Exhibitions

This marine painter, illustrator and stained-glass window designer was born in Toronto and learned his technique at the Toronto Technical School, the Central Ontario School of Art and Industrial Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He later became a lecturer at the Ontario College of Art and an associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1941.

During the war, he was assigned to designing camouflage for boats. He was an official war artist in the Navy from June 1943 to May 1944. He painted primarily in the Esquimalt region, but also did a few canvases in the Great Lakes region.

After he was demobilized, he returned to teaching at the Ontario College of Art. He wrote and illustrated articles on subjects related to the Navy. He died in Toronto in 1973.

PA-113904
Lieutenant Rowley Walter Murphy at work in Esquimalt, British Columbia.
14 September 1943.