Name/Title
Portrait of John Andrew Mara (1840-1920), President of The Union Club of British Columbia, 1909-1913Entry/Object ID
2001.01.24Description
Painting
This richly-coloured full length portrait depicts Toronto-born John Andrew Mara in a suit and tie with his coat, hat and cane on a leather armchair to his left. A strong supporter of British Columbia’s union with Canada, he was a Canadian merchant, rancher and a politician at both the B.C. provincial (1871-1886 incl. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, 1883-1886) and federal levels (1887-1896). Of note, Mara had earlier joined the famous Overlanders of 1862 and traversed the Prairies and the Rockies from Fort Garry, Manitoba to B.C.'s Cariboo Gold Fields.Type of Painting
EaselArtwork Details
Medium
Oil on canvasSubject Place
Region
Pacific NorthwestContinent
North AmericaContext
The Overlanders of 1862 were a group of 150 settlers who travelled from Fort Garry (now Winnipeg) to the interior of B.C. lured by news of rich gold finds in the Cariboo. They unfortunately found that deposits were nearly exhausted by the time of their arrival that fall. The Overlanders themselves were also exhausted and starving after their months-long dangerous journey, saved by the Secwepemc (Interior First Nations Salish), who gave them provisions. Reportedly, all but six of the original group survived.
Mara settled near Kamloops in 1869 and established the first fleet of steamboats in the area, later entering B.C. politics. He was elected in the Kootenay region, and then in Yale, and was later elected to the House of Commons for Yale. Mara moved to Victoria with his family in 1900. President of the Union Club from 1909 to 1913, he championed the idea of a new Union Club clubhouse in Victoria, B.C. and then oversaw its planning and construction (1910-13) on Gordon Street at Humboldt. In appreciation, Club members brought the notable portrait artist Edmund Wyly Grier, RCA from Toronto to paint this picture. The painting hangs in the Club's main stairwell to this day.
Founded in 1879, The Union Club of British Columbia is a landmark institution in the heart of downtown Victoria., B.C., considered the foremost business, social and cultural club in the city.Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Sir Edmund Wyly Grier, RA, RBA, RCA (1862-1957)Role
PainterDate made
1913Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Sir Edmund Wyly Grier was a celebrated Canadian portrait painter born in Melbourne, Australia. He first came to Canada with his parents in 1876 and attended Upper Canada College in Toronto, and upon graduation, the family moved to London for his studies at the Slade School of Art. He later studied in Rome at the Scuola Libera del Nudo and in Paris at the Académie Julian with the academic Realist painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905). Grier rented Porthmeor Studio 11 in Cornwall for nine years. He exhibited from 1886 to 1895 at the Royal Society of British Artists and at the Royal Academy. In 1890, he won a gold medal at the Paris Salon. In 1891, he returned to Canada to stay, opening a portrait studio in Toronto.
He had a lengthy and notable career painting numerous portraits of politicians, corporate leaders and other significant contemporaries, with his first commissioned portrait being in 1888 and his last in 1947. Through his portraits, Grier won recognition and admission to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts becoming its president ,1929-1939. In 1901, he won a silver medal at the Pan-American Exhibition at Buffalo. He was active in several arts organizations, including the Ontario Society of Artists (OSA President, 1908-1913) and one of the founders of the Toronto Arts and Letters Club. Grier received an honorary Doctor of Civil Law from the University of Bishop’s College in 1934. In 1935, he was made a Knight Bachelor by the government of Richard Bennett, the first Canadian to receive a knighthood in recognition of his work as an artist. And in 1937 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary Corresponding Academician.
Grier was also one of 118 Canadian artists who, in 1932, demanded reform at the National Gallery of Canada including a government investigation and threatened a contentious boycott. In addition to the Gallery, the controversy involved the Canadian Group of Seven, the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA), various key artist societies (incl. the Island Arts and Crafts Society), Government Ministers and many professional artists. At the time, Grier was RCA president and OSA past-president. See Web Links.Inscription/Signature/Marks
Type
Signature, DateLocation
Signed and dated lower left : E. Wyly Grier 1913Dimensions
Dimension Description
ImageHeight
182.9 cmWidth
132 cmAcquisition
Acquisition Method
PurchaseDate
1913Notes
Legacy collection
Commissioned by the Union Club of British Columbia
![Crossing the Pembina River [Alberta], August 1862. Sketch by William George Richardson Hind (1833-1889). The artist kept a sketchbook while accompanying the Overlanders of 1862.: From Library and Archives Canada (Acc. No. 1963-97-1.85R)](https://d8e7jbdw4fu0e.cloudfront.net/5457/02b5e940-19e7-11ee-82d5-377a5e1f3af0-vZbWVHw.lg@2x.jpg)