Artist Information
Artist
Thomas Mower Martin, RCA (1838-1934)Role
PainterDate made
n.d.Time Period
19th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in London, England, Thomas Mower Martin was an English-born Canadian landscape painter dubbed "the father of Canadian art” in his obituary written in The Montreal Gazette. He was the son of the acting treasurer of the Inner Temple, and as a young man, he had been launched on a military career. However, after attending Royal Academy exhibitions he decided to pursue a career in the arts.
Martin took some part-time instruction at the South Kensington Schools in London but was mostly self-taught as an artist, immigrating to Canada with his wife Emma Nichols (1842-1911) in 1862, settling first in Muskoka, Ontario and later in Toronto where he became an established professional painter. Martin produced works in watercolour, oil and etching, and his landscapes were said to have made Canada’s scenery famous in many parts of the world. He was one of the “Railway Painters” group that included Lucius O'Brien RCA (1832-1899), Frederick M. Bell-Smith RCA (1846-1923), Marmaduke M. Matthews RCA (1837-1913), Forshaw Day RCA (1831-1903) and Martin. This was done as part of the Canadian Pacific Railroad program for well-established Canadian artists to record the completion of the transcontinental railway and the landscape.
Martin was a founding member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1872 and was director of the Ontario Government Art school from 1877 to 1879. He was was a founding and charter member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and a member of the Royal British Society of Colonial Artists. The Marchioness of Lorne, wife of the Governor-General of Canada, was a painter herself, and helped to support Martin's efforts in the formation of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1880 and later the Ontario society.
