Artist Information
Artist
Marmaduke M. Matthews, RCA (1837-1913)Role
ArtistDate made
circa 1887 - circa 1889Time Period
19th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Borcester, Warwickshire, England, Marmaduke M. Matthews was a prominent Canadian painter and leader in the art community in the late 19th and early 20th century. He became known for his landscapes in the Victorian tradition of the Rocky Mountains, Eastern Canada, and New England, as well as his portraits. After his art studies at the Cowley Diocesan in Oxford and London University, he immigrated to Toronto in 1860. He later traveled to New York in 1865, where he stayed four years. As an enthusiastic traveler, Matthews' later journeys included British Columbia (1887-1889), Vermont, and New Hampshire.
In 1887 Matthews was granted a Canadian Pacific Railroad Pass and made his first excursion of three to the Rocky Mountains as part of the C.P.R. program for well-established Canadian artists to record the completion of the transcontinental railway and document the Rockies in order to promote the opening of the Northwest, and to encourage settlement and commercial development. These artists, known as the “Railway Painters”, included Lucius O'Brien RCA (1832-1899), Frederick M. Bell-Smith RCA (1846-1923), Thomas Mower Martin RCA (1838-1934), Forshaw Day RCA (1831-1903) and Matthews. Of note, Matthews reportedly sketched from a locomotive cowcatcher.
Matthews was a founding member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1872 and served as vice-president, president and secretary. He was active in the foundation of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1880, and also a charter member. His works are held in a number of public collections such as the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario. In Toronto, he is remembered as the creator of Wychwood Park in 1874 - a plot of land that he once lived on, that later became an artists' community and is now a natural landscaped neighbourhood located northwest of downtown.
