Artist Information
Artist
Orville Norman Fisher (1911-1999)Role
ArtistDate made
n.d.Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Vancouver, Orville Norman Fisher was an accomplished Canadian artist, an Official Canadian War Artist and a teacher. He was an early honours graduate of the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (now the Emily Carr University of Art and Design), after training with Fred Varley (1881-1969) of the famed Canadian Group of Seven and others. He did post-graduate studies at the B.C. College of Arts, and later formed an artistic partnership with fellow Vancouver artists E.J. Hughes (1919-2007) and Paul Goranson (1911-2002). Together, they completed murals for the Malaspina Hotel in Nanaimo and for the B.C. Pavilion at the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco.
When World War II broke out, Fisher joined as a private in the Royal Canadian Engineers; however, after his artistic talents were recognized, Fisher was transferred to officer training and made an Official War Artist. On June 6th, 1944, Fisher was the only Allied war artist to take part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy. He did 246 sketches at the time that he later turned into powerful watercolours and oil paintings. The series is now housed in the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa.
After the war, Fisher returned to Vancouver where he began a teaching career at the Vancouver School of Art founding the Graphics Department which he headed from 1946 until 1976. And he continued his work as a muralist, graphic artist, painter and interior decoration designer. He was a member of the B.C Society of Artists and the Canadian Society of Graphic Artists. Fisher died at 88 years of age in Langley, B.C.
![Mural by [Orville Fisher?] painted 1938 in the Malaspina Hotel dining room, 193? Unknown photographer: From Royal B.C. Museum and Archives (Acc. no. 193501-001)](https://d8e7jbdw4fu0e.cloudfront.net/5457/07b46fd0-4777-11ee-a989-8b441a88f4dd-vQWgNsF.lg@2x.jpg)