Name/Title
The McGregor Bar at the Union ClubEntry/Object ID
2019.06.03Description
Painting
This image depicts the wood-paneled Union Club McGregor Bar through the open glass doors of the adjacent lounge. A bartender is at work to the right, with patrons to the left. Liquor bottles and glasses are arrayed behind, as well as taxidermy specimens on the wall above.
Founded in 1879, The Union Club of British Columbia is a landmark institution in the heart of downtown Victoria., B.C., whose members represent a legacy of leadership and who have been at the heart of the business, social and cultural life of Victoria and beyond from its early beginnings. The Gordon Street building housing the Bar is the third clubhouse venue.Artwork Details
Medium
Acrylic on wood panelSubject Place
Region
Pacific NorthwestContinent
North AmericaContext
Captain James Herrick McGregor (1869-1915) was the ninth president of the Union Club, 1914-1915. He was a highly respected provincial land surveyor, serving as an Oak Bay City Councillor, 1909-1914, until he enlisted in the Army to fight for Canada in World War I. He served with the 16th Battalion of the Canadian Scottish, Canadian Expeditionary Force, and was killed in action during the 1915 battle of St. Julien. The Union Club's McGregor Lounge including the Bar is proudly named after him.
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This Union Club building on Gordon Street at Humboldt was recognized as nationally significant in 1995 by the joint federal, provincial and territorial administered registry, Canada’s Historic Places. And in 2017, The Union Club of British Columbia was declared a National Historic Site by the Government of Canada. The Union Club, completed in 1913, earned the prestigious status for its important early history and outstanding architecture of Beaux-Arts Italian Renaissance Revival Style.
Designed by noted San Francisco architect Loring P. Rixford (1870-1946), plans for the building were drawn up with the help of prominent Victoria architect Francis Mawson Rattenbury (1867-1935). Of note, in addition to the building's elegant design, is it's juxtaposition with The Empress Hotel (1908), a nationally significant Château-style hotel, built for the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Belmont Building (1912), significant for its early use of concrete frame construction and as a gatepost to Victoria's commercial core. Together these buildings form a backdrop of historic places in the northeast corner of the Inner Harbour, and mark the entrance to Victoria's Old Town District.
In 2017, an extensive $4 million five-year building renovation project was completed, including exterior restoration. The restoration of the exterior terracotta was documented and the photographs now form part of the Club's collection. See 2018.06.01 - 2018.06.15.Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Robert Edward Amos, RCA. UCBC Member ArtistRole
PainterDate made
2019Time Period
21st CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Belleville, Ontario, Robert Edward Amos is one of Victoria, B.C.'s most public artists and writers, although perhaps best known as a painter. With a fine art degree from Toronto's York University, he moved west first to Vancouver, and then arrived in Victoria in 1975, working at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria for five years, followed by a year (1980-81) of travel in Japan, Thailand and Malaysia with future wife and artist Sarah Amos. He has become one of the city’s best known artists, specializing in paintings of homes and gardens. He paints in watercolour and acrylic.
Amos wrote about art and artists in his Times Colonist newspaper column for 32 years and has produced numerous CBC Radio reports and books on Victoria’s artists and the art scene, such as "Harold Mortimer Lamb: The Art Lover" (2010). He is the official biographer of artist Edward J. Hughes (1919-2007), and has completed three books on Hughes - "EJ Hughes Paints Vancouver Island" (2018), "EJ Hughes Paints British Columbia (2019)" and The E.J. Hughes Book of Boats" (2021). He has also been artist in residence at The Empress Hotel and the Oak Bay Beach Hotel, and part of the "Painters at Painter’s Lodge" event in Campbell River, B.C. for some 20 years. His paintings are held by the City of Victoria, the Art Gallery of Great Victoria and the University of Victoria, as well as in numerous private collections.Inscription/Signature/Marks
Type
Signature, InscriptionLocation
Signed Lower right: R. AMOS
Verso panel in marker :
'The Bar at the Union Club'
© Robert Amos 2019
Acrylic
Also business card pasted lower centre.Dimensions
Dimension Description
SupportHeight
45.7 cmWidth
61 cmAcquisition
Acquisition Method
GiftDate
Jun 6, 2019Notes
Donated by Lawrence Graham (UCBC President 2017-2019) and Carollyne Yardley. UCBC Members.Relationships
Related Entries
Notes
By Robert Amos:
2001.01.53 Union Club of B.C.
2014.08.53 Front Steps Union Club, Blue Coat Girl
2018.08.02 Front Steps Union Club, Red Coat Girl
2019.06.03 The [McGregor] Bar at the Union Club
