From the Author
It was a special pleasure to work with the staff at the Art Canada Institute. Warm thanks are due to Sara Angel and Anna Hudson for inviting me to write on Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, an unsung hero of Canadian art. At the ACI, I would like to acknowledge those who made the writing and production of this book such a rewarding experience. Executive editor Kendra Ward handled gracefully the myriad details involving this publication; image research associate Emma Frank patiently sourced images, as did Marie van Zeyl for the print edition; layout director Simone Wharton and designer Rondie Li are responsible for the beautiful design of the book, and Emily Lawrence assisted in many ways. I would also like to thank the anonymous peer reviewer. An exceptional debt of gratitude goes to my substantive editor Lara Hinchberger who contributed her professional expertise and helpful ideas to this project. A huge note of thanks is due to Paul Sabourin who has generously supported both the digital and print versions of this book. He also kindly showed me his outstanding collection of Canadian art which includes a number of fine works by FitzGerald that appear in this publication.
I am very grateful to Andrew Kear, chief curator at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, who facilitated my research in many ways. I have also benefited from the enthusiasm and suggestions of Dr. Oliver A.I. Botar at the University of Manitoba. Brian Hubner and Linda Eddy kindly assisted me with access to the FitzGerald fonds at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, Winnipeg. At the Art Gallery of Ontario, I would like to thank Gregory Humeniuk and Brenda Rix for providing information and showing me works in their care. Amy Furness and Donald Rance were helpful beyond measure at the AGO’s E.P. Taylor Reference Library and Archives.
This book in its present form would not have been possible without the encouragement and assistance I received some twenty-nine years ago when I was invited by former Winnipeg Art Gallery director Carol Phillips to curate In Seclusion with Nature, The Later Work of L. LeMoine FitzGerald 1942 to 1956. At that time it was my privilege to interview three people who knew the artist well: his former student Irene Heywood Hemsworth; patron and collector Dr. E.J. (Ted) Thomas; and FitzGerald’s son-in-law Hugh Morrison. Their generous sharing of their memories at that time remained a strong influence for me as I wrote the current text. While working on In Seclusion with Nature I also benefited greatly from the knowledge of Helen Coy, at that time curator of the FitzGerald Study Centre at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, and that of FitzGerald scholar Liz Wylie.
The following friends and colleagues supported my work on this book on both scholarly and logistical fronts: Ken Andrews, Alicia Boutilier, Kenlyn Collins, Charles Hill, Ihor Holubizky, Scott James, Donna Jones, Serena Keshavjee, Alan Loch, Peter Neary, Bronwen Quarry, Morley Shayuk, Sarah Stanners, Georgiana Uhlyarik, Jamie Wright, and Liz Wylie. I would also like to acknowledge Patricia and Earl Green, copyright holders of the FitzGerald estate, for their gracious permission to reproduce works by the artist.
Finally I thank my wife and fellow art historian, Barbara Butts, for her cogent suggestions that improved my manuscript and for her endless patience and willingness to discuss Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald with me.
From the Art Canada Institute
The Art Canada Institute gratefully acknowledges the generosity of The Sabourin Family Foundation, the Title Sponsor of this book.
The Art Canada Institute gratefully acknowledges its other sponsors for the 2017–18 Season: Aimia, Alexandra Bennett in memory of Jalynn Bennett, Consignor Canadian Fine Art, Kiki and Ian Delaney, Richard and Donna Ivey, the six children of Betty-Ann McNicoll-Elliott and R. Fraser Elliott, Sandra L. Simpson, and TD Bank Group.
We also sincerely thank the Founding Sponsor for the Art Canada Institute: BMO Financial Group; and the Art Canada Institute Founding Patrons: Jalynn H. Bennett, Butterfield Family Foundation, David and Vivian Campbell, Albert E. Cummings, Kiki and Ian Delaney, Jon S. and Lyne Dellandrea, the Fleck family, Roger and Kevin Garland, Gershon Iskowitz Foundation, Glorious & Free Foundation, The Scott Griffin Foundation, Michelle Koerner and Kevin Doyle, Jane Huh, Phil Lind, Sarah and Tom Milroy, Nancy McCain and Bill Morneau, Gerald Sheff and Shanitha Kachan, Sandra L. Simpson, Stephen Smart, Pam and Mike Stein, Nalini and Tim Stewart, Robin and David Young, Sara and Michael Angel; its Visionary Patrons: Connor, Clark & Lunn Foundation and Lawson Hunter; as well as its Founding Partner Patrons: The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and Partners in Art.
The ACI gratefully acknowledges the support and assistance of the Art Gallery of Hamilton (Christine Braun); Art Gallery of Ontario (Jill Offenbeck); Canada’s History magazine (Tanja Hutter); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Sue Grinols); Heffel Fine Art Auction House; Heidelberg University Library; Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Archives of Manitoba; Ingram Gallery (Tarah Aylward); McMichael Canadian Art Collection (Alexandra Cousins); National Gallery of Canada (Raven Amiro and Véronique Malouin); Philadelphia Museum of Art; School of Art Gallery; The Horta Museum (Christophe Malvoti); University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections (Natalie Vielfaure); University of Toronto Art Museum (Heather Pigat and Sydney Rose); University of Winnipeg (Donna Jones); Winnipeg Art Gallery (Nicole Fletcher); and Patricia and Earl Green.
Image Sources
Every effort has been made to secure permissions for all copyrighted material. The Art Canada Institute will gladly correct any errors or omissions.
Credits for Banner Images
Biography: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, 1946, University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, Winnipeg, PC 241, Box 1, Fd. 1, (17-0130).
Key Works: Autumn Sonata, 1953–54. (See below for details.)
Significance & Critical Issues: Summer, East Kildonan, 1920. (See below for details.)
Style & Technique: Apples, Still Life, 1933. (See below for details.)
Sources & Resources: The Pool, 1934. (See below for details.)
Where to See: Installation view of FitzGerald’s A Memorial Exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, February 23 to March 23, 1958. (See below for details.)
Credits for Photographs and Works by Other Artists
Allegory of Law, 1920, by Augustus Vincent Tack. Legislative Building, Winnipeg. Courtesy of Radharc Images / Alamy Stock Photo.
A Street in Rouen by Richard Parkes Bonington. Reproduced in The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine & Applied Art, 33 (November 1904), 98. Courtesy Heidelberg University Library.
Belle Hicks and Lionel Henry FitzGerald, c. 1890. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery Library (PH 9.6.1).
City Scene, Winnipeg, 1926, by C. Keith Gebhardt. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, gift of the artist (G-69-77).
Country Elevator with Horses and Field of Hay, c. 1920–29, by Alexander J. Musgrove. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, gift of Robert and Margaret Hucal (2011-4). Photo credit: Ernest Mayer.
Cover of Canadian Art 7, no. 4 (Summer 1950).
Cover of exhibition catalogue Beauty in a Common Thing: Drawings and Prints by L.L. FitzGerald (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2004).
Cover of exhibition catalogue In Seclusion with Nature: The Later Work of L. LeMoine FitzGerald, 1942 to 1956 (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery 1988).
Cover of The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine & Applied Art 53, no. 219 (June 15, 1911). Courtesy Heidelberg University Library.
Cover of the Winnipeg Actimist (February 1945). Collection of the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, Winnipeg, Box 2, Fd. 15 (6-0065(1)).
Felicia (Vally) FitzGerald around the time she married LeMoine, c. 1912. Collection of the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, Winnipeg, PC 241, Box 1, Fd. 3 (1-0277). Photo credit: Bob Talbot (FitzGerald Study Centre).
From the Garden of the Chateau, 1921 (reworked 1925), by Charles Demuth. Collection of the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, museum purchase, Roscoe and Margaret Oakes Income Fund, Ednah Root, and the Walter H. and Phyllis J. Shorenstein Foundation Fund (1990.4).
The Gulf of Marseilles Seen from L’Estaque, c. 1885, by Paul Cézanne. H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (29.100.67).
The Hôtel Tassel, Brussels, 1893–96, by Victor Horta (1861–1947), the grand landing of the bel étage. Courtesy of the Horta Museum, Brussels.
Installation view of the FitzGerald Memorial Exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, February 23 to March 23, 1958. University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, Winnipeg. Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald fonds, MSS 287 PC 241 (A.09-16) – Box 2, Fd. 17.
Installation of the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, Art Institute of Chicago, 1926.
Landscape with River, Beausejour, Manitoba, 1937, by Caven Atkins. Collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, purchased 1993 (36936). With the permission of Ingram Gallery, on behalf of the Estate of Caven Atkins. Photo: National Gallery of Canada.
Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald at the age of twenty, 1910. Photograph by Krauss Studio, Chicago. University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, Winnipeg, A.09-16 PC 241 (1-0306).
Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald at the front gate of his home, 672 Sherbrook St., Winnipeg, c. 1905. Photographer unknown. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery Library (PH 9.2.6).
Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald and Bertram Brooker, July 1936. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery Library, L.L. FitzGerald Holdings #1, (700-05).
Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald and Vally in their dining room with friends, c. 1940. Collection of the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, Winnipeg, PC 241, Box 1, Fd. 8 (17-0029). Photo credit: Bob Talbot (FitzGerald Study Centre).
Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald carving Untitled oak sculpture, 1936. Collection of the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, Winnipeg, PC 241, Box 1, Fd. 1 (17-0012).
Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald drawing at Silver Heights, August 23, 1934. Photograph by A.O. Brigden. Collection of the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa.
Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald in his living room, c. 1940. Photograph by Bob Talbot (FitzGerald Study Centre). Collection of the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, Winnipeg, PC 241, Box 1, Fd. 8 (17-0029).
Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald in his office, c. 1939, with a book open to a reproduction of Paul Cézanne’s Portrait of Victor Chocquet, 1877. FitzGerald Study Centre, School of Art Gallery, University of Manitoba. FSC17-0118. Gift of Earl and Patsy Green from the Estate of Patricia Morrison.
Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald working from a portable sketching box at Silver Heights, August 23, 1934. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery Library, L.L. FitzGerald Holdings #1 (700-05).
New York, 1920, by Charles Sheeler. Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, Friends of American Art Collection (1922.5552). As reproduced in: Steven Spier, Urban Visions: Experiencing and Envisioning the City (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002).
Prairie Road, 1925, by Charles Comfort. Hart House Permanent Collection, University of Toronto, donated by the Graduating Year of 1931 (1931.001).
Prang’s New Graded Course in Drawing for Canadian Schools, Book V, Toronto: W.J. Gage and Company, Ltd., 1901. Collection of the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, Winnipeg, A.09-16 MSS 287, Box 3, Fd. 5 (12-0679).
Railroad Bridge, Argenteuil, 1874, by Claude Monet. Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the John G. Johnson Collection (1050).
Self-Portrait in Hell, 1903, by Edvard Munch. Collection of the Munch Museum, Oslo. Courtesy of Wikicommons.
Serenity, Lake of the Woods, 1922, by Frank H. Johnston. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery (L-102). Photo credit: Ernest Mayer.
Shore Roots, 1936, by Bertram Brooker. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, acquired with funds from The Winnipeg Foundation (G-74-4).
St. Boniface, Manitoba, 1928, by C. Keith Gebhardt. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, gift of the artist (G-69-71).
T. Eaton Company Limited, Winnipeg, advertisement for Ansco Cameras, University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, Winnipeg, A.09-16 MSS 287, Box 3, Fd. 2 (1-0261).
1. FitzGerald, Lionel LeMoine, 1890-1956. 2. FitzGerald, Lionel LeMoine, 1890–1956—Criticism and interpretation. 3. Painters—Canada—biography. 4. Biographies. I. Art Canada Institute, issuing body II. Title
Michael Parke-Taylor is an art historian based in Toronto. He received his art historical training at the University of Toronto and The Courtauld Institute of Art, London.
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