A DISCUSSION OF THE STYLISTIC DEVELOPMENT 

IN THE DATED OIL PAINTINGS OF 

LIONEL LEMOINE FITZGERALD (1890-1956) 

by 

KAREN LINDA SENS 

B.A., University of British Columbia, 1973 

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF 

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF 

MASTER O F ARTS 

THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES 

(The Department of Fine Arts) 

We accept this thesis as conforming 

to the required standard 

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 

September 1978 

(c^ Karen Linda Sens, 1978 



In p r e s e n t i n g t h i s t h e s i s in p a r t i a l f u l f i l m e n t o f the requirements f o r 

an advanced degree at the U n i v e r s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia, I agree that 

the L i b r a r y s h a l l make i t f r e e l y a v a i l a b l e f o r reference and study. 

I f u r t h e r agree t h a t p e r m i s s i o n f o r e x t e n s i v e copying o f t h i s t h e s i s 

f o r s c h o l a r l y purposes may be granted by the Head o f my Department or 

by h i s r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s . It i s understood that copying or p u b l i c a t i o n 

o f t h i s t h e s i s f o r f i n a n c i a l gain s h a l l not be allowed without my 

w r i t t e n p e r m i s s i o n . 

Department o f FINS ARTS 

The U n i v e r s i t y o f B r i t i s h Columbia 
2075 Wesbrook Place 
Vancouver, Canada 
V6T 1W5 

Date OCTOBER 5, WIS 



II 

ABSTRACT 

This thesis discusses the stylistic development of Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald 

(1890-1956) as seen in his dated oil paintings. 

Chapter I outlines FitzGerald's formative years (1890-1919). It attempts 

to explain how his love of the prairies and interest in art developed. It suggests 

the dominant influences in his study of art. It includes a stylistic discussion of 

FitzGerald's earliest works, including his well known, Late Fall, Manitoba 

(1918). 

Chapter II attempts to explain why FitzGerald suddenly lightened and 

brightened his palette. It explores the sources which may have influenced the 

development of FitzGerald's impressionistic style (1920-October 1921) and it 

provides a stylistic analysis of two of his impressionistic works, Summer East  

Kildonan (1920) and Summer Afternoon, The Prairie (1921). 

Chapter llldiscusses the importance of FitzGerald's first trip to New York, 

his study at the Art Students' League (December 1921 - May 1922) and his study 

of the works of European masters at the Metropolitan Museum. It explores the 

influence his two art instructors, Boardman Robinson and Kenneth Miller may have 

had on his work. It also suggests the importance of the works of Cezanne to 

FitzGerald's development. 

Chapter IV discusses the new directions FitzGerald pursued upon his return 

from New York. It reveals that FitzGerald's new style of painting, as seen in 

Potato Patch, Snowflake (1925) was fairly dependent on the external influences 

he had seen while in New York. This chapter also discusses the importance of 



• • • 
III 

FitzGerald's appointment as instructor for the Winnipeg School of Art, to his 

development of a new more studied style, as seen in Williamson's Garage (1927). 

Chapter V explores the influences of his second trip to the East (June 1 -

July 1, 1930) on his artistic development, through revealing statements drawn 

from FitzGerald's Diary. 

Chapter VI reveals FitzGerald's striving towards more personal expressions 

during the thirties and forties, as seen in three major works from this period, 

Doc Snider's House (1931), Jar (1938), and Still Life: Two Apples (1940). 

Chapter VII discusses FitzGerald's gradual move towards abstraction. 

Suggestions of this direction, are already noted in From an Upstairs Window,  

Winter (1948). It includes a stylistic analysis of two abstract works, Composition  

N o . 1 (c. 1950-51) and Abstract: Green and Gold (1954). The last major o i l , 

Hat (1955), is discussed in terms of a final statement made by the artist. An 

attempt is made to determine the essential characteristics of FitzGerald's paintings, 

which enable them to transcend their regional boundaries and speak to all of 

Canada. 



iv 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

LIST O F SLIDES v 

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S vi 

Chapter 

I FORMATIVE YEARS (1890 - 1919) 1 

II IMPRESSIONISTIC PERIOD (1920 - OCTOBER 1921) . . 19 

III NEW YORK PERIOD (1921 - M A Y 1922) 30 

IV NEW DIRECTIONS (JUNE 1922 - M A Y 1929) 39 

V SECOND TRIP EAST (JUNE 1 - JULY 1, 1930) 48 

VI TOWARDS MORE PERSONAL EXPRESSIONS (JULY 1930 -

AUGUST 1947) 67 

VII TOWARDS ABSTRACTION (SEPTEMBER 1947-AUGUST 1956).. 89 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 100 

APPENDIX (LIST OF FITZGERALD'S DATED OIL PAINTINGS) I l l 



LIST OF SLIDES & * t i * 4 0>lk^'^ 

1. Seated Man (1909) 

2. Manitoba Winter (1914) lower painting 

3. Late Fall, Manitoba (1918) 

4. Summer, East Kildonan (1920) 

5. Summer Afternoon, The Prairie (1921) 

6. Broken Tree, Kildonan Park (1920) 

7. Riviere des Prairies, P . Q . (1922) 

8. Potato Patch, Snowflake (1925) 

9. Williamson's Garage (1927) 

10. Poplar Woods (1929) 

11. Doc Snider's House (1931) 

12. Jar (1938) 

13. Still Life: Apples (1940) 

14. Sketch: From an Upstairs Window, Winter (1948) 

15. From an Upstairs Window, Winter (1948) 

16. Three Apples on a Purple Plate (1949) 

17. Composition N o . 1 (c. 1950-51) 

18. Abstract: Green and Gold (1954) 

19. Hat (1955) drawing 

20. Hat (1955) oil 



A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S 

I would like to especially thank Doreen Walker, Department of Fine Arts, 

for her encouragement and very valuable assistance and Miss Melva Dwyer, Fine 

Arts Librarian, for her assistance regarding bibliographic and footnote entries. 

I would also like to express my sincere thanks to the many individuals 

and institutions which allowed me to photograph FitzGerald's work and to study 

any additional information they possessed. 

My special thanks is extended to the staff of: 

The Winnipeg Art Gallery 
(especially to Ann Davis, Pat Bovey and Cathy Stewart) 
The National Gallery of Canada 
The Art Gallery of Ontario 
The Queen's University Archives 
The Hart House, University of Toronto 
The FitzGerald Study Centre, Winnipeg School of Art, 

University of Manitoba 
(expecially to Helen Coy) 
Mr. and Mrs. Patricia Morrison (died, October 1976) 
M r . and Mrs. Earl Green 
Dr. Ferdinand Eckhardt 
Mr. Robert Ayre 
Mr. John A . MacAulay 
M r . Bill Riley 
Professor Gissur Eliasson 
Miss Lynn Sissons 
Dr. A . J . W . Alcock 
Mrs. Doris Booth 

Finally I wish to thank my family for their encouragement and support. 



1 

CHAPTER I 

FORMATIVE YEARS (1890 - 1919) 

"The faculty of being able to see in their surroundings something 

beautiful no matter how apparently ordinary they may be, is invaluable."^ 

These are the words of Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, a man who never 

tired of the prairie landscape and who found beauty in the simplest still life 

arrangements; comprising only of a jug or a discarded milk can. Lionel LeMoine 

FitzGerald was fortunate in having that rare gift that only master artists possess, 

that enables them to turn the commonplace — be it a small corner of the 

landscape or everyday objects — into works of art. Primarily a landscape artist, 

FitzGerald saw and experienced the prairie in a way that few people have done 

or ever w i l l . FitzGerald's own description of a train ride to Regina reveals the 

depth of this man's perception. 

The day was especially lovely, with a fine sky and plenty of 
lights and shadows to break up the visible expanse of land seen through 
the car windows. I was more than ever impressed with the wide 
variations in the contours from the flatness outside Winnipeg to the 
gradually increasing roll of the ground as we went westward. A 
marked blue in the distance, gave the feeling of low lying hills and, 
sometimes, close up a higher mound, topped with trees, broke the 
long line of the horizon in a most pleasant way. Even where flatness 
dominated and the horizon seemed one long straight line, bluffs of 
poplar, farm buildings and the wide variety in the fields from the 
light of the stubble to the dark of the freshly ploughed land, relieved 
the possible monotony and kept the interest.^ 



FitzGerald spent his early life in Winnipeg, except for the summers when 

he went to visit his grandparents' farm in Snowflake, Manitoba, a small town 

south of Winnipeg. It was in Snowflake, that FitzGerald developed his 

appreciation for nature and, in particular, for the prairie. This love of nature 

and the prairie developed simultaneously and was later strongly reflected in his 

drawings and paintings. FitzGerald said, "The summers spent at my grandmother's 

farm in southern Manitoba were wonderful times for roaming through the woods 

and over the fields and the vivid impressions of those holidays inspired many 

3 
drawings and paintings of a later date." 

According to Robert Ayre, a close friend of the mature artist, FitzGerald's 

only boyhood daily farm chore was to bring the cows home. "FitzGerald 

respected the placid undemanding cows, which kept their own counsel and let 
4 

him keep his, leaving him to his thoughts and dreams." He was a dreamy child 

of modest upbringing who grew to become a quiet man who enfoyed working 

independently. 

FitzGerald was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on March 17, 1890. From his 

sister, Mrs. Perry, can be traced his family origins. His father was Lionel Henry 

FitzGerald, a descendant of Irish nobility, who was brought to Canada from 

Nassau in the Bahamas while a young boy and reared by his uncle, Sir Issac Lemoine, 

at the Grange Estate near Quebec City. It was from Sir Issac that FitzGerald 

received his middle name. According to Patricia Bovey, "Lionel Henry FitzGerald 

had come West with a survey party, and he later returned to Winnipeg as a bank 

messenger."^ Mrs. Perry stated that "Henry FitzGerald came to Manitoba when 

he was seventeen. ..In 1889 he married Belle Wicks, a native of Exeter, Ontario, 



whose parents owned a farm in Snowflake, Manitoba. n / Belle Wicks was a 

descendant of yeoman farmers of Devonshire who had settled in Exeter. Even 

though LeMoine's maternal grandfather had died when he was only five or six 

years old, his grandmother kept up the farm. 

According to FitzGerald, his first interest in art came when he was in 

Grade III. 
t 

My first recollection of an interest in pictures goes back to the 
day when I was a pupil in a Grade III class at the Isbister School here 
in Winnipeg. The teacher - all I remember about her now is that she 
was a motherly sort of person - showed us some of those small brown 
reproductions of art masterpieces known as Perry Pictures. She 
explained that these cost one or two cents each and that if we wished 
to buy some we could bring the money to her and she would order 
them for us. She also told us that there were larger ones that cost 
twenty-five cents each. I had been saving my money to buy my 
father and mother a gift for their wedding anniversary and I decided 
right then that I'd get one of those larger prints for them.^ 

This interest in art grew with each successive year. FitzGerald, wishing 

to increase his knowledge about art and artists, frequently visited the small art 

section of the William Avenue Branch of the Winnipeg Library, that had recently 

opened in 1904. Recounting his early exposures to art through the medium of 

books, FitzGerald wrote, 

I read Ruskin at almost the beginning and all that clings to me as 
closely as my vacation days at Snowflake at my grandmother s f a r m . . . 
Strange books I read at that time trying to find out something about art. 
Ruskin pretty weighty stuff, but through a lot of wading and looking at 
the illustrations.a lot of avenues opened just a little and naturally, 
Turner became something of a god. I still retain something of that 
illusion with the greater knowledge that has come with the passing 
years and contact with many reproductions of his work and the seeing 
of a few original works. For the first time, I read of the other artists 
that Ruskin wrote of in comparison with Turner and began a study of 
the history of art in this way. I got a wonderful thrill from the two 
volumes of Holman Hunt's Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite 



4 

Brotherhood. The earlier days of the brotherhood existence naturally 
interested me the most and I read and looked at the production of 
these days with something of awe, at the, to my mind then, terrific 
achievements of such young men. 

. . .Perhaps Ruskin's Elements of Drawing was the most fascinating 
to me, of all the books. Here I had something definite, a plan of 
study, that might lead me into the way of doing things that promised 
possibilities in the future. 

. . . N o t from the library but from a friend came the loan of an issue 
,of the Studio containing a long article on Bonington with numerous 
illustrations, one in colour, very lovely, a street in Rouen. From a 
watercolour drawing with some body-colour, I made a copy of this 
and read and reread the text and learned some of the reproductions 
almost by "heart". From this I became pretty intimate with Bonington 
and my admiration of that time has only increased. 

Gradually, by such a hit and miss method I got started. The Q 
library was invaluable and I always look at it with a special feeling. 

Thus at an early age, FitzGerald had absorbed aspects of the history of 

art through the writings of Ruskin. What was the thrust of Ruskin's teaching and 

how did they influence the later artistic development of FitzGerald? According 

to Elizabeth Holt, "For Ruskin the artist's whole function was to be seeing, 

feeling, — (quoting Ruskin) — 'an instrument of such tenderness and sensitiveness 

that nothing shall be left unrecorded 1 ."^ According to Ruskin, "The greatest 

thing a human being ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what 

he saw in a plain w a y . ^ These words appear to have formed the guiding light 

for FitzGerald. His mature oils like Jar of 1938 (Slide 12) and Still Life: Two  

Apples of 1940 (Slide 13), reveal that FitzGerald retained a considerable amount 

of Ruskin's philosphy of the artist as the 'seeing and feeling recorder'. 

It is obvious from FitzGerald's letter that he immensely enjoyed reading 

Ruskin's Elements of Drawing (1857). One of the interesting aspects of this 



5 

book, with respect to the study of FitzGerald's work, is the section on colour 

theory. According to Holt, Elements of Drawing presents an advanced colour 

theory advocating a stippling technique of pure colour over a white ground. 

This also influenced the Neo-lmpressionists, since Ogden Rood in his book 

Modern Chromatics (1879), entitled Theorie Scientifique des Couleurs (1881) 
12 

in the French version; included large sections of Ruskin's colour theory. 

Several of FitzGerald's works done in a dapple technique (for example, Three 

Apples on a Purple Plate of 1949 (Slide 16), may have had their origins in his 

early involvement with Ruskin's theory. FitzGerald never adhered strictly to 

any theory, yet he seemed to absorb fragments from many different sources, and 

modified them to serve his own ends. 

It is likely that the young FitzGerald had also read at least one of Ruskin's 

volumes on Modern Painters (1843-60) which extolled the virtues of Turner as the 

ideal painter. After reading Ruskin, FitzGerald, as quoted, had felt that Turner 

was something of a god. In Modern Painters Ruskin wrote: 
Turner is the only painter, so far as I know, who has ever drawn 

the sky.. .all previous artists having only represented it typically or 
partially, but he, absolutely and universally... He is the only painter 
who ever drew the stem of a tree, Titian having come the nearest before 
him, and excelling him in the muscular development of the large trunks ' 
(though sometimes losing the woody strength in a serpent like flaccidity), 
but missing the .grace and character of the ramifications.^ 

in Poplar Woods of 1929 (Slide 10), FitzGerald has also portrayed the 

muscular development of the large trunk, without losing its "woody strength", 

and has given the tree a certain universal quality and a pervading grace. No 

doubt, Ruskin would have commended his vicarious student for this work. 



6 

According to Holt, "The Pre-Raphaelites received Ruskin's endorsement 

14 

for they were earnest men." FitzGerald, too, was an earnest man, a man 

whose lifestyle was not divorced from his art. He was a sincere, quiet, casually 

dressed prairie artist who worked diligently at his art. His works reveal his 

diligence, and are sincere, quiet and unadorned depictions relating to his prairie 

experience. FitzGerald's life style and the style of his works mirror each other 

fairly accurately. 

Did FitzGerald's readings on Pre-Raphaelitism have any effect on his later 

works? It would appear that the stylistic influence of the Pre-Raphaelistes 

(Holman Hunt, William Rossetti and John Everett Millais) was very minimal or 

non-existent. FitzGerald probably enjoyed Holman Hunt's Pre-Raphaelitism and 

the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1905) more as a piece of literature than a 

philosophy of art. The young FitzGerald had felt awe for these artists, yet the 

mature FitzGerald realized their frailties. The only direct correlatipn between 

FitzGerald and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement (and this is one reason why the 

latter was supported by Ruskin would seem to be their insistence on studying 

directly from nature). 

The last artist, which FitzGerald made reference to having read about 

during his formative years, was Richard Parkes Bonington (1801 - 1828), in an 

article published in The International Studio magazine. Through reading his 
article, FitzGerald felt that he "became pretty intimate with Bonington's 

15 
works., .and my admiration of that time has only increased." 



7 

This article written by Henri Frantz in December of 1904, established 

Richard Bonington as a renowned artist and as a direct precursor of Impressionism. 

Referring to Bonington's works, Frantz wrote, 

Naturalism succeeds to Romanticism only to give way its turn 
before Impressionism, and still the water-colours and oils from this 
artist's hand retain all that freshness of charm, all that modern 
feeling, which is as enchanting for us as for our fathers. 

Bonington's oil paintings and watercolours might well be divided 
under three general heads. . . . In the secondary category . . . 
Bonington became more closely attached to Romanticism, and followed 
a course parallel to that of Delacroix; nay. perhaps it would be more 
exact to say that he followed h i m . ^ The third . . . are canvases 
. . . all shimmering with light, all overflowing with the glorious 
rays of that Italian sun. . . . ' ^ Bonington, I consider, shares with 
Turner the title of the most luminous colourist of the English nineteenth 

i i 19 century school. 

Since FitzGerald read this article, presumably shortly after it was published 

in December of 1904, he was also aware, at least to some degree, of the works 

of Delacroix and Constable, and he had heard of the term "Impressionism" as early 
20 

as 1904-05. Thus prior to receiving any formal art training, FitzGerald had 

learned a certain amount about nineteenth century English and French painting 

through art books and periodicals. 

It was also during his formative years, that he first became acquainted with 

the works of Millet, the great French master, who depicted the quiet dignity of 

farm life. His Grade IV teacher had several prints of Millet's paintings in the 

21 
classroom. According to Ayre, FitzGerald had appreciated them but did not 

grasp their importance. Ayre wrote, these "had struck a note but he had not 

22 
understood i t . " Bovey asserts that he certainly understood Millet's works by the 

23 
time he painted The Potato Patch, Snowflake of 1925 (Slide 8). Thus 



8 

FitzGerald, while still a youth, had been exposed to several famous artists through 

reading and seeing colour reproductions. 

FitzGerald enjoyed the school art classes which allowed him to create his 

own art. Several of his art sketch books from his school days are still extant. 

These sketch books were formerly in the possession of Mrs. Pat Morrison, 

FitzGerald's daughter, but are now located in the FitzGerald Study Centre at the 

University of Manitoba. Bovey writes, "These show a remarkably steady hand and 

a keen interest in drawing. His later concentration on detail and command of 

24 

technique are certainly foreshadowed in these early works." FitzGerald 

wrote his own comments about these early sketches years later in a letter to 

Robert Ayre, 
Very recently I ran across some drawings made as exercises and 

I think the ideas good. They were simple and Ruskin-like, called for 
great honesty of purpose, and a reverence for the finest things. Not 
a bad programme for the young mind — or for the older one for that 
matter.^> 

One of the more finished sketches in one of the sketch books, dated 

probably around 1906, is an untitled pencil drawing of two large bags which are 

firmly tied up with string. Already his natural sense of balance in compositional 

arrangement is apparent. The drawing itself is very fine and has that subtlety of 

line which FitzGerald,retained all his life. 

He attended school only until the age of fourteen which was the common 

practice for children of families of moderate means. In later years, FitzGerald 

tried to reassure his mother that "he had an education deeper than any he could 

26 
have squeezed out of books and lectures." 



9 

It was after he had left school and started working at a wholesale drug 

office, that his childhood enjoyment of art began to develop as an increasingly 

more important part of his life. FitzGerald wrote, 

After leaving school (in 1904), I worked in a wholesale drug 
office, and finding the job not quite satisfying, I felt the first real 
urge to draw, so I got some drawing-paper, a pencil, and eraser 
andstarted work. One of the first efforts, out-of-doors, was the 
drawing of a large elm tree and I remember a friend and I making 
great preparations and walking a long distance to find a subject that 
appealed to us. I think perhaps the walk into the country held as 
much fascination for us as the work. However, we did find this 
lovely old tree and tried our best to put down what it looked like 
but my remembrance is chiefly of the soft warmth of the sunny day, 
the quiet country around us, and our walk home. 

From 1909 to 1912, FitzGerald spent his days working at various jobs. 

28 
His first job was in Stovel's publishing house, which was probably owned by 
Mr. J . Stovel, who later became an M . L . A . and was on the Board of Directors 

29 
for the Winnipeg School of Art during its early years (1921 - ). Later, 

FitzGerald worked in an engraver's plant for three months and then, until he was 

30 

twenty-two years old, in a stockbroker's office. Around 1909, he began his 

formal study of art by taking one of A . S . Keszthelyi's evening courses given at 

the Keszthelyi School of Art (also called the Winnipeg School of Fine Arts), located 

in the old Stobart Block in downtown Winnipeg. A Hungarian, Keszthelyi, 

had recently moved to' Canada after having been a professor at the Carnegie 

Schools in Pittsburgh. Ann Davis writes, 
Little is known about this teacher's Canadian interlude except that 

he only stayed about four years, instructing 'Drawing and Drawing from 
the living model, Decorating, Designing and Portraiture'. . . .Keszthelyi's 
few extant works would suggest that he concentrated on figure painting. 



10 

It was not until later in FitzGerald's career that he too developed an interest in 

figure painting. An advertisement in The Winnipeg Free Press dated from 

July 11/ 1910, reveals that A . S . Keszthelyi was an artist who had received 

several honours both abroad and in Winnipeg including: the Hungarian Scholarship 

(1901); the Harkanyi Prize, Budapest International Exhibition (1903); the 

Rothschild's Travelling Scholarship (1903); as well as a medal for "Best Collection 

of Pictures in the Winnipeg Exhibition" of 1909, including the "First Prize for 

Portraits in O i l " , "First Prize for Miniatures on Ivory" and "Gold and Silver 

32 

Medals for Best Paintings". Unfortunately so little else is known about 

Keszthelyi's works and his teachings, that his influence upon FitzGerald's works 

cannot be determined. 

Seated Man of 1909 (Slide 1) was probably a classroom figure study that 

FitzGerald had done while a student at the Keszthelyi's School of Art. It 

portrays a middle-aged man resting on a simple wooden chair, his shoulders 

rounded and his hands resting between his legs. This charcoal drawing reveals 

the latent talent the young FitzGerald possessed, both in draughtsmanship and 

the modelling of forms. 

In 1911 he exhibited for the first time a few of his landscapes at his old 

haunt, the Winnipeg Public Library. Unfortunately, it is not known which these 

are. It is possible that one of the works was a small (8" x 10-1/2") landscape 

oil entitled Woodland (listed in the Appendix), since it is the only known work 

of that year. This was exhibited at the Morris Gallery in February 1973, but 

its present location is known, and no reproduction of this work has been found 

to date. 



11 

It was not until 1912, at the age of 22, that FitzGerald decided to 

33 
commit himself wholly to the field of art and in particular, to painting. This 
was to be his full time profession. On November 25th this same eventful year, 

he married Felicia Vally Wright, a singer who had been born and raised in 

34 

Ottawa. On March 30, 1916, their first child, Edward, was born and three 

years later on March 25, 1919, their daughter, Patricia, was born. 

Although he devoted a considerable amount of time to his development as 

a painter up until the middle of the 1920's, he also (for financial reasons) had 

many related short term jobs. While the real estate boom lasted, he drew maps 
35 

for an advertising agency. Then, he took up decorating windows for Eaton's 

display department, as well as designing and painting scenery for theatre groups 

like the Community Players of Winnipeg. According to Bovey, through the 

Winnipeg Little Theatre, FitzGerald made a number of very close friends, 

including Arnold and Florence Brigden of Brigdens of Winnipeg Ltd., the 

photoengraving firm, and Claude and Mrs. Sinclair. Both Mrs. Brigden and 

Mrs. Sinclair acted in the theatre and both couples were avid art collectors, 
36 

and through the years bought many of his works. 
37 

In 1912 the Winnipeg Art Gallery was opened. According to Robert Ayre, 

FitzGerald shared a studio with Donald MacQuarrie, the new curator, and that 

"MacQuarrie, himself "a painter in the Corot tradition, had some influence on 
38 

the younger man's work." Unfortunately, so little is known about the works of 

MacQuarrie that it is very difficult to surmise what influence his works may have 

had on F i t z G e r a l d . ^ 



12 

In 1913, FitzGerald exhibited a work entitled The Dying Embers of 
40 

Autumn in the Royal Canadian Academy Exhibition held in Montreal. 

This was the first of his paintings to be exhibited with the Royal Canadian 

Academy and he continued to exhibit with them regularly for the next several 

years. Unfortunately, little is known about The Dying Embers of Autumn; 

there is no reproduction available and its present location is unknown. It would 

be assumed that the medium would have been o i l , but even that is uncertain. 

It is known that FitzGerald had a preference for the colours of the last stages 

of autumn, and that this was a preference he retained all of his life. Speaking 

of the beauty of late autumn, he once said, 
Even though all the autumn colour had gone from the trees, there 

was definitely colour. True, it was of a delicate nature, and required 
more concentration to see than the richer tones of early f a l l . But the 
very delicacy gave it a charm and a sense of vastness that more obvious 
colour would never have achieved. If I have any preference in the 
seasons, perhaps, this time of the year comes closest to it. The 
greyness and delicacy of land and sky have a particular appeal for 
me, a greater emotional impact than any other period. . . . The high 
delicate key of colour in the late fall has a particular quality that 
is the most satisfying and has dominated my selection in colour 
arrangement.^ 

This statement is also important for considering the colour of FitzGerald's later 

autumn coloured still lifes like Jar of 1938 (Slide 12). 

This preference for this greyness and delicacy of the land and sky is also 

seen in an oil painting from 1914, which is perhaps typical of his earliest works 

(up to 1920). It is an untitled work referred to as Manitoba Winter (Slide 2). 

This small oil painting (6-1/2" x 8-1/2") is in a private collection in Winnipeg.^ 

The colouring of the work ranges from pastel browns, greys to off-whites, giving 

the work a calm and sombre quality. In comparison to his later works, it appears 



13 

quite loosely organized, although the eye is led by the inverted V curve of the 

line of barren trees, from the right foreground into the left middle-ground and 

back into the right background, to the focal point which is the small farm house. 

The painted surface is only slightly textured. This painting appears to have the 

flavour of a fairly quickly executed oil sketch, where details are left quite vague 

and the artist is simply attempting to capture the overall feeling of the scene. 

In 1916, FitzGerald received some recognition for his Prairie Trail of 

c. 1916, which he had exhibited in Montreal at the R . C . A . annual exhibition. 

H. Mortimer-Lamb, The Studio correspondent, wrote, "something of the vastness 

of the prairie country and the feeling it inspires was well suggested in Mr. 

43 

FitzGerald's Prairie T r a i l . " 

Locally, FitzGerald was also beginning to receive recognition. He 

exhibited at the Fourth Annual Exhibition of Paintings by Western Artists held 

at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, then located in the Industrial Bureau. This 

exhibition was held on June 13, 1916. The catalogue of the exhibition 

unfortunately provides little information. It only lists the name of the artist, 

title of the work, and the price of each of the fifty works on display. L.L. 

FitzGerald exhibited eight works, all landscapes/ ranging in price from $15.00 

for his work entitled Grey Day, to $150.00 for his work entitled Prairie Trail. 

(Other well known local artists of the period who exhibited at this exhibition were 

W . J . Phillips, F.H. Fripp and H. Valentine Fanshaw.) 

In 1918, FitzGerald received some national recognition. The National 

Gallery of Canada purchased Late Fall, Manitoba of 1918 (Slide 3). It is 



14 

somehow appropriate that the first oil painting that the National Gallery chose 

to buy for their collection should have been a work depicting FitzGerald's 

favourite time of the year — late autumn. In writing of FitzGerald's earliest 

works, including his Late Fall, Manitoba, Davis writes, these "are characterized 

by quick application of rather thin paint, resulting in a somewhat scrubbed and 

44 

hazy image. Here volume and colour predominate over line." 

In his earliest works, like Manitoba Winter (1914) and Late Fall, Manitoba 

(1918) perhaps certain relationships between the work of the young FitzGerald and 

the works of 'Corot influenced1 MacQuarrie can be seen. Both of these works 

use a very limited palette of sombre greys, greens and browns, avoiding strong 

value contrasts. The influence of MacQuarrie, his former colleague, might also 

be detected in the depiction of the soft hazy fluffiness of the foliage in Late Fall, 

Manitoba, which suggests the late works of Corot. However in his early works, 

he is basically interested in recording nature; it is in the mature FitzGerald that 

his own unique vision will be found. 

FitzGerald's works from boyhood to 1919, centred on one subject, 

landscape ~ in particular landscape of his home region, the prairies of Southern 

Manitoba. He enjoyed depicting the prairies in each of the four seasons, but 

— as acknowledged —: it was the late fall that he most preferred. He drew and 

painted not only vast prairie scenes, but also the woods and rivers around 

Winnipeg. His choice of landscape as the theme for the works of his youth (and 

indeed landscapes formed the majority of his life's works) is not at.all surprising 

since FitzGerald had an enormous love of nature. 



His earliest works tended to be small in size and pastel in colour, and 

more concerned with depicting the scene as it actually appeared rather than 

imposing any intellectually structured modifications. This was also true of his 

colour. He chose the colours of nature, the subtle greens and browns.ofthe 

prairies, and applied them in a strictly naturalistic way. At this stage in his 

development, FitzGerald was not yet as involved in the study of colour and li 
t 

as he was to become in his impressionistic works of the early 1920's. 



16 

CHAPTER I 

F O O T N O T E S 

^The Wanderer, "I First Saw, " The Winnipeg Tribune," December 21, 
1923. In this statement, FitzGerald is referring to school children. 

2 
Thomas Papers, L.L. FitzGerald, "Painter of the Prairies," C . B . C . 

Wednesday Night Talk, December 1, 1954, typescript, p. 1. 

3 Ibid. 

4 
Queen's University Archives, Ayre Papers, Robert Ayre, "Lionel LeMoine 

FitzGerald," typescript unpublished article, p. 3. 
5 
Dale Amundson, "Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald," (unpublished B.F.A. thesis, 

University of Manitoba, 1963) p. 7. Records information obtained from Mrs. 
Perry, FitzGerald's sister. 

^Patricia Bovey, "The Man, " Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, The Development  
of an Artist, Exhibition Catalogue (The Winnipeg Art Gallery: 1958) p. 12. " 

^Amundson, "Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald," p. 7. 
.) 8 

Nellie H. George, " L . L . FitzGerald, The Prairie Artist, " The Manitoba  
Teacher (March - April, 1958), p. 12. Unfortunately the artist represented in 
this large reproduction is not known. 

9 
Queen's University Archives, Ayre Papers, Letter from L.L. FitzGerald 

to Robert Ayre, July 25, 1949. 

^Elizabeth Holt, From the Classicists to the Impressionists: A Documentary  
History of Art and Architecture in the Nineteenth Century (New York: Doubleday 
and C o . , Inc., 1966), p. 117. Includes a quote by Ruskin as recorded in Holt. 

'^Ruskin's writings as recorded in: Harold Osborne, The Oxford Companion  
to Art (Oxford: Claredon Press, 1970), p. 1026. 

12 
Holt, Classicists to the Impressionists, p. 118. 



17 

13 
John Ruskin, Modern Painters, Volume I: Of General Principles and  

of Truth (Boston: Dana Estes & Company, 1873) as recorded in: Holt, 
Classicists to the Impressionists, p. 124. 

14 
Holt, Classicists to the Impressionists, p. 118. 

15 
^Letter from L.L. FitzGerald to Robert Ayre, July 25, 1949. 

*6Henry Frantz, "The Art of Richard Parkes Bornington, 1801 - 1828." 
The International Studio, 24 (December 1904), p. 99. 

l 7 | b i d _ . , p. 104. 

1 8 | b i d . , p. 108. 

19 
Ibid., p. 111. 

20 
Refer to Chapter II: Impressionistic Period 1920 - October 1921, for a 

more comprehensive handling of Impressionism and how it relates to FitzGerald's 
work. 

21 
Probably one of the Millet prints was of The Angelus, since it was more 

widely known from reproductions than any other in that century. Millet's The 
Sower and The Gleaners were also very popular, and many school and church 
Classrooms had reproductions of these three works hanging on the wall. 

2 2 A y r e , " L . L . FitzGerald, " p. 6. 

23 
Refer to the stylistic discussion of Potato Patch, Snowflake, 1925, for 

more information regarding Millet's influence on FitzGerald. 
24 

Bovey, "The M a n , " L.L. FitzGerald Catalogue, p. 12. 
25 

Letter from L.L. FitzGerald to Robert Ayre, July 25, 1949. 
2 6 A y r e , " L . L . FitzGerald," p. 5. 

27 
Dr. Ferdinand Eckhardt, "Introduction," L.L. FitzGerald 1890 - 1956:  

A Memorial Exhibition (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, Mortimer Ltd., 1958). 
28 

University of Victoria, Creative Canada - A Biographical Dictionary of  
Twentieth Century Creative and Performing Artists (Toronto: University of Toronto 
Press, 1971), p. 111. 29 Winnipeg School of Art, "Prospectus 1921 - 1922," n.p. 



18 

-Robert Ayre, "Painter of the Prairies, " Weekend Magazine, 8, 12 (1958), 
p. 26. 

31 
Ann Davis, "A North American Artist," Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, The 

Development of an Artist, Exhibition Catalogue (The Winnipeg Art Gallery: 
1958), p. 28. Contains a quote from: "Winnipeg School of Fine Arts, " The Winnipeg  
Free Press, July 11, 1910. 

32 
Winnipeg Art Gallery Files, "Winnipeg School of Fine Arts," The Winnipeg  

Free Press, July 11, 1910. 
33 

Peter Mellen, The Group of Seven (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 
1970), p. 182. 

34 
Letter from Dr. Eckhardt to Mrs. Hagmeier, February 10, 1968. Lists the 

marriage date as November 22, 1912. 
35 

Ayre, "Painter of the Prairies," p. 26. 

36 
Bovey, "The M a n , " L.L. FitzGerald Catalogue, p. 14 (paraphrased). 

37 
Dennis Reid, A Concise History of Canadian Painting (Toronto: Oxford 

University Press, 1973), p. 160. States that the Winnipeg Art Gallery opened in 
1913. 

38 

Ayre, " L . L . FitzGerald," p. 7. 

39 
Refer to the stylistic discussion of FitzGerald's Late Fall, Manitoba, 

1918. Suggests certain possible influences that MacQuarrie had on FitzGerald's 
work. 

40 
Reid, Concise History, p. 160. States that the 1913 R . C . A . Exhibition 

was held in Winnipeg to inaugurate the new art gallery. There appears to be 
some discrepancy over its location. Davis, "A North American Artist," L.L. 
FitzGerald Catalogue, p. 28. States that it was held in Montreal. 

41 
Thomas Papers^ "Painter of the Prairies," C . B . C . Wednesday Night  

Talk, p. 1. 
42 

I was fortunate to have been allowed to photograph this work, while I 
was in Winnipeg in the summer of 1975. The owners, however, did not wish to 
be acknowledged. 

43 
H. Mortimer-Lamb, "Studio Talk," The International Studio, 67 

(February - May, 1916), p. 66. The present location of Prairie Trail is unknown 
and there is no available reproduction of this work. 

44 
Davis, " A North American Artist," L.L. FitzGerald Catalogue, p. 28. 



19 

CHAPTER II 

IMPRESSIONISTIC PERIOD (1920 - OCTOBER 1921) 

In FitzGerald's works of the early 1920's (1920 - October 1921), it is 

apparent that the artist has entered a new phase in his stylistic development.^ 

The two best and most characteristic examples of this period are Summer, East 
2 

Kildonan of 1920 (Slide 4) and Summer Afternoon, The Prairie of 1921 (Slide 5). 

These works, unlike his more sombre-toned earlier works (up to 1919), are light, 

vibrant works with a freer handling of paint and a concern for the effect of sun-

light on a landscape. What could have caused FitzGerald to have suddenly 

lightened and brightened his palette? FitzGerald, certainly, had not seen any 

original paintings done by the French Impressionist painters when he painted 

these works, yet their influence is apparent. 

It is probable that FitzGerald's development of an impressionistic technique 

was derived from three sources. First, from looking at reproductions of the works 

of the French Impressionists. Indeed, The Winnipeg Tribune of December 21, 

1923, mentioned that FitzGerald had "gained experience through looking at what 

others have done in reproductions." The author of this article quotes FitzGerald 

as follows: 
'We (in Winnipeg) have a wonderful background for the development 

of artists here and a freedom from some unnecessary influences. But we 
at the same time are handicapped by a lack of representative works of the 
old and new masters of painting which are essential in the progress of the 



20 

artist, and in increasing appreciation on the part of the general 
public. Further it is of great importance that the younger generation 
be able to see these things of beauty when they are building their 
mental attitudes for the future, when the contact with fine examples 
would be of the greatest significance in not only their appreciation 
of art, but of nature.1 

The author continues, 

. . .Mr. FitzGerald has given expression to a view, endorsed by many 
other artists, that in these days of fine reproductions and their 
comparatively low cost it would be an excellent idea to have a number 
in the schools where children could live with them from day to day.^ 

The above article highlights two important points. First, that FitzGerald 

believed that the knowledge of the great masters in painting was essential to an 

artist's development. Second, that good quality, low cost reproductions were 
4 

available in Winnipeg at this time. 

The second source responsible for FitzGerald's change in technique was 

probably illustrated art magazines like The International Studio. From 1904 -

1920, The International Studio published many good articles on the Impressionist 
5 

artists. Even the early 1904 article on Bonington contained several references 

to Impressionism. FitzGerald, intrigued by this article, surely must have tried to 

gain more information about Impressionism. The December issue of this [ournal 

contained a one page advertisement for a series of articles entitled "The 

Impressionists and Impressionism" by Charles Louis Borgmeyer, which were to be 

published in Fine Arts Journal. The ad reads this series will contain, 
. . .at least one hundred and twenty reproductions of pictures by 
Manet, Claude Monet, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir, Pissaro, Sisley, 
• . . etc. etc. 

Therefore, certainly by 1920, FitzGerald, through his reading, would have been 

aware of the works of the Impressionists and their technique. 



21 

The third source, probably in part responsible for the development of 

FitzGerald's impressionistic technique, was the influence of other contemporary 

Canadian artists. This third source is difficult to substantiate or pinpoint to a 

specific contact with a specific artist. According to Joan Murray, Impressionism 
7 

was introduced into Canada in the mid-1890's. Some Canadian artists felt the 

impact of Impressionism, indirectly, through their contacts with American artists, 

who were working in an impressionistic style. Between 1890 - 1920 many 

Canadian artists, including Maurice Cullen,A.Suzor-Cote, James Morrice and 

A . Y . Jackson went to France to study. These artists would have had the 

opportunity to see and study, directly, from the original works of the French 

Impressionists. Concerning the Canadian artists' interest in Impressionism, Joan 

Murray, has stated: 
The works of the Impressionist influenced painters were poorly 

received by the public. To combat this indifference Canadian artists 
formed the Canadian Art Club of 1907. Through the influence of the 
Club and Montrealers such as A . Y . Jackson, the style became one 
of the sources of inspiration for the founding members of Canada's 
national school, the Group of Seven, which held its first group 
exhibition in 1920, by which time most of the Group had developed, 
beyond Impressionism to an acceptance of Post-Impressionism ideas. 

By 1920, knowledge of artists such as Maurice Cullen and Marc-Aurele de 

Foy Suzor-Cote should have penetrated as far west as Winnipeg. In The 

International Studio, FitzGerald would certainly have read about and seen 

reproductions of their works and those of Tom Thompson and the Group of Seven 

9 

artists, even if he had not had the opportunity to as yet see any originals. 

Writing to Frank Johnston on October 19, 1921, from a train passing through 

Algoma on the way to Ottawa, FitzGerald remarked, " . . . t o just see your 



22 

interpretation and then the real thing gives me a more intimate feeling towards 

the work that you and the others have been d o i n g . " ^ This statement reveals that 

FitzGerald was aware of the works of the Group of Seven painters prior to 

October of 1921. 

FitzGerald may have seen his first original painting by A . Suzor-Cote in 

October of 1921. The Canadian Art of Today Exhibition held at the Winnipeg 

Art Gallery from October 15th to December 10th, 1921, contained one of Suzor-

Cote's oils, Veil lard de Chez Nous, valued at $ 1 , 0 0 0 . 0 0 . ^ The exhibition 

catalogue contains this caption below this work: 

A . Suzor-Cote, R . C . A . Born in Quebec. Studied abroad. He is 
a most gifted artist and his models of the habitant have a quaint appeal. 
His subjects are varied and colourful. He has received many honours 
at home and a b r o a d . ^ 

This quote reveals the excellent reputation Suzor-Cote had already developed by 

1921 in Canada and abroad. FitzGerald was also represented at this exhibition, 

with his o i l , Summer, East Kildonan, valued at $375.00. Even a strictly 

monetary value comparison, shows the degree to which Suzor-Cote was already 

considered a well established and recognized artist. It would seem that FitzGerald 

would have seen reproductions of Suzor-Cote's works prior to this date. 

Having considered possible sources for the development of FitzGerald's 

impressionistic style, it might be of interest to consider how closely FitzGerald's 

work compares with the work of the French Impressionist painter, Claude Monet. 

Monet's The Garden, Giverny (1902) might be considered a characteristic example 

of Impressionism. 



23 

The Garden, Giverny portrays the effect of sunlight on a landscape. 

In order to capture the effects of outdoor light, the artist has disregarded local 

colour. Colour became only the result of the play of light. The artist 

endeavoured to achieve these effects by juxtaposing small strokes of pure colour 

to obtain the desired brilliancy. The transitional greys, ochres, browns and blacks, 

were avoided in favour of these brighter, often unmixed hues. 

In Monet's The Garden, Giverny it is the depiction of sunlight reflecting 

on flowers, trees and garden path which is the artist's main concern. This passion 

for recreating the effects of light causes Monet to almost abandon contour, 

modelling and any precise details of the scene. His technique (which was 

characteristic of the Impressionists) to capture the shimmering quality of light, 

was to apply thick small flecks or. dabs of pure colour using short, quick brush 

strokes. 

FitzGerald through his readings of Ruskin's Elements of Drawing was already 

aware of the theory, which-advocated using a stippling technique of pure colour 

over a white ground. Having read about Impressionism and having studied the 

reproductions of the Impressionists, FitzGerald probably decided to experiment 

and try to create his own variation of this style using the prairie landscape as his 

subject. 

Summer, East Kildonan of 1920 displays his interpretation of Impressionism. 

Like the French Impressionists, FitzGerald probably painted this work out-of-doors 

(plein air), and his works of this period emphasize the effect of sunlight on the 

prairie. Although Bovey writes; 



24 

FitzGerald did not work like the Impressionists. He did work 
outdoors but usually in watercolours or even pencil. . . . Also 
FitzGerald executed studies and sketches.'^ 

This would not seem to be true in the case of Summer, East Kildonan or his other 

painting from this period, like Summer Afternoon, the Prairie (1921). Both these 

works appear to have been executed out-of-doors, in a spontaneous fashion without 

the use of preparatory sketches. This seems to be substantiated by Ayre's quote, 

that FitzGerald (referring to his works prior to 1924) "gave up the quick and easy 

14 

style of his oil paintings and turned to watercolour, etching and drawing." The 

words "quick and easy" imply that they were executed in a short period of time 

and without the use of preparatory drawings. 

FitzGerald's technique of painting in these works is certainly that of French 

Impressionism. A comparison of Monet's The Garden, Giverny and FitzGerald's 

Summer, East Kildonan reveals certain similarities between these two works. Both 

portray basically the same subject matter, including a path leading to a small 

country house, encircled by trees, and completely showered in sunlight. Both 

artists have portrayed beautifully the sunlight breaking through the trees, creating 

dappled sparkles of light on the ground below. In both paintings the actual 

subject is the beautiful and complex quality of light which creates such gorgeous 

patterns, and not merely a depiction of a local summer landscape. The landscape 

has become only a vehicle for the expression of the effect of sunlight on the colour 

in nature. 

FitzGerald's interest in the depiction of sunlight was already recognized in 

1921. In the catalogue of the Canadian Art of Today Exhibition, in which 

FitzGerald had exhibited his o i l , Summer, East Kildonan, is written, " L . L . FitzGerald, 



25 

Winnipeg's native son, whose studies have been greatly to his own credit. He 

15 

specializes in the painting of light." In The Garden, Giverny, Monet 

has increased the emphasis shadows play in his work and minimized the role of 

contour and form. FitzGerald's Summer Afternoon, The Prairie (1921) is a 

definite step closer to Monet, in its disintegr ation of mass, than his earlier, 

Summer, East Kildonan (1920) which reveals a clearer expression of form as seen 

in the depiction of the trees and the house. 

In Summer Afternoon, The Prairie (1921) the contours and forms of the 

house, wagon and row of trees are barely discernible. The broken dab technique, 

results in FitzGerald's elimination of all precise details, and has the effect of 

minimizing perspective. Painted in a naturalistic way, this scene would have 

revealed the feeling of wide open spaces ending in a distant horizon which is 

typical of the prairies. Instead, FitzGerald's impressionistic handling draws 

attention to the actual textured surface of the painting. Like the Impressionists, 

FitzGerald rejects the local colours of nature (for example, green grass) and 

reveals the colours of nature as a result of the play of light and reflections (for 

example, green grass that contains shades of blue, pink, red, orange, purple 

and yellow). The vibrancy of this work is a result of the use of broken strokes 

of juxtaposed complementaries, which create a rhythm over the painted surface 

of the canvas. In Summer Afternoon, The Prairie, his handling of paint has 

become more textured than his early oil Summer, East Kildonan. FitzGerald 

has now laid his paint on in thicker, more distinctive dabs. 

However, FitzGerald soon turned from this "quick and easy" style of 

painting. Like Seurat and Cezanne, whom he admired, he outgrew his early 



26 

impressionistic style of painting and in the years to come began searching for 

alternate modes of expression. He was to develop a strong concern for structure 

and to become interested in capturing the essential quality of the scene, rather than 

accidental or transitory effects. 

It was also in 1921, that he began to realize how much he admired the 

works of the Group of Seven painters. According to Reid: 

The decorative side of FitzGerald's art found support with the 
arrival in September, 1921, of Frank Johnston of the Group of Seven 
to become principal of the Winnipeg School of Art. Johnston would 
have seen FitzGerald's show (One Man Exhibition, September, 1921), 
of course, but it was FitzGerald who was impressed. Writing to Johnston, 
(on October 19, 1921) from a train passing through Algoma on the way 
to Ottawa, FitzGerald remarked 'how already I appreciate the truth 
that you have caught in your things and the big decorative values. . . . 
To just see your interpretation and then the real thing gives me a more 
intimate feeling towards the work that you and the others have been 
d o i n g . ' 1 6 

There had been a small opportunity for FitzGerald to be influenced by the 

decorative works of Johnston. Johnston, no doubt, saw FitzGerald's work at this 

One Man Exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and they would have discussed 

art in general and their own works in particular. But Johnston's direct influence 

was minimal, since after having met Johnston, FitzGerald began preparing for his 

trip to New York. Probably Johnston's greatest influence was an indirect one, in 

that it was he who probably suggested to FitzGerald to study at the Art Students' 

League in New Y o r k . ' 7 

Johnston, having studied at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts and 

worked in New York in 1910, knew the value of getting formal art training outside 

of Canada and felt that the most progressive American school in the early 1920's 

was the Art Students' League in New York. Johnston had valued his New York 



27 

experience and in 1914, with the financial help of Dr. MacCallum, returned for 

another year. ^ 

Had FitzGerald chosen to remain in Winnipeg, with the newly appointed 

principal of the Winnipeg School of Art, he might have developed a decorative 

style of painting similar to Johnston's The Dark Woods of c. 1921. Instead, at 

the age of 31, with only a little money, either in his pocket or to support his 

family while he was away, he left to study in New York. Robert Ayre, writes of 

this turning point in FitzGerald's career, stating that until about 1921, he had 

. . .painted quickly and easily, developing a breezy Impressionism. 
People liked it and FitzGerald might have slipped into a formula and 
become a popular painter. But he wasn't satisfied. It was too easy. 
It had nothing to do with the thing inside that was struggling for 
expression. After nearly ten years, he realized that the time had come 
for another break. In December, 1921, he went to New York and 
enrolled in the Art Students' League. To pay for the adventure, he 
helped an interior decorator paint mansion on Long Island and his wife 
ran a tearoom in Toronto. For the first time, he was away from home.'^ 



28 

CHAPTER II 

F O O T N O T E S 

It is possible that FitzGerald could have experimented with his own 
variation of Impressionism prior to 1920, but there are no known dated oils to 
substantiate this theory. 

2 
Summer Afternoon, The Prairie was included in FitzGerald's first One 

Man Exhibition, held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery from September 10th to 27th, 
1921. The Exhibition Catalogue lists a total of 41 works on display; 30 oils, 
10 pastels and 2 decorative paintings. All of these according to their titles, 
would appear to have been landscapes. 

^The Wanderer, "I First Saw, " The Winnipeg Tribune, December 21, 
1923. 

4 
By 1920, the French Impressionists were so well known in Europe and in 

many parts of the United States and Canada, that reproduction of their works 
would certainly have been available in Winnipeg for FitzGerald to study. 
Unfortunately, FitzGerald does not make reference to having seen reproductions 
of the works of the French Impressionists in any of his later writings. 

5 
Two of the better articles were: Martin Wood, "The Grosvenor Howe 

Exhibition of French A r t , " The International Studio, 54 (November 1914), 
pp. 3-11. Martin Wood, "Modern French Pictures at the National Gallery," 
The International Studio, 63 (November 1917: February 1918), pp. 53-56. 

^The International Studio, 48 (December 1912), p. 23. 

^Joan Murray, Impressionism in Canada (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1973), 
p. 10. " 

g 
Ibid., p. 11. 

9 
The International Studio had a fairly good coverage of well known 

Canadian artists. There is an excellent article on Tom Thompson, refer to: 
H. Mortimer-Lamb, "Studio Talk," The International Studio (July - September 
1919), pp. 119-126. 



29 

Peter Mellen, The Group of Seven (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 
1970), p. 221. Actual source of FitzGerald's quote is a letter in the possession 
of Paul Rodrik. 

^The present location of this work is unknown. At present, there is no 
reproduction of this work available. It is assumed that this work would have been 
executed in an impressionistic technique since (according to Joan Murray, p. 90) 
Suzor-Cote had been influenced by Impressionism as early as 1893. 

12 
Canadian Art of Today Exhibition Catalogue (Winnipeg Art Gallery: 1921), 

p. 5. 
13 

Patricia Bovey, "Some European Influences, " Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald  
Exhibition Catalogue, Winnipeg Art Gallery: 1978), p. 78. 

14 
Queen's University Archives, Ayre Papers, Robert Ayre, "Lionel LeMoine 

FitzGerald," unpublished article, nd. typescript, p. 9. 
15 

Canadian Art of Today Exhibition Catalogue, p. 5. 
'^Dennis Reid, A Concise History of Canadian Painting (Toronto: Oxford 

University Press, 1973), pp. 160-161. Contains a FitzGerald quote found in a 
letter in the possession of Paul Rodrik. Refer to: Mellen, p. 221 . 

Helen Coy (FitzGerald Study Centre) suggests that FitzGerald's contact 
with Augustus Vincent Tack in 1920 may have influenced FitzGerald's choice of 
New York for study. According to Coy, Augustus Vincent Tack, a teacher at the 
Art Students' League in New York, had come to Winnipeg in 1920, to install his 
murals in the Manitoba Legislative Chamber. (Helen Coy, L. LeMoine 
FitzGerald Exhibition Catalogue (March 7-29, 1977), p. 5.) It appears that 
FitzGerald assisted A . V . Tack to install these canvases. This is further clarified 
in a letter from Helen Coy to Karen L. Sens, dated August 3, 1978. 

There is an interview in The Manitoba Free Press, dated 
November 22, 1924 which details FitzGerald's recent experience, and 
states, 'He assisted A . V . Tack in connection with the latter's 
decoration of the Manitoba Legislature Chamber.' . . . 
It is unlikely FitzGerald did more than help with the actual installation 
of the Tack canvases, since The Winnipeg Free Press of July 16, 1920 
reports that these same canvases had previously been exhibited by 
Tack in New York and had 'created a decided sensation'. 

^ M e l l e n , The Group of Seven, p. 209. 

19 
Robert Ayre, "Painter of the Prairies, " Weekend Magazine, 8, 12 (1958), 

p. 26. 



30 

CHAPTER III 

NEW YORK PERIOD (DECEMBER 1921 - M A Y 1922) 

During the 1920's, New York was unquestionably the centre of modern art 

in America. The sympathetic critics were there and a number of new progressive 

art galleries had opened on 57th Street. Aspiring artists were drawn to this 

metropolis to obtain their formal art training and to see the great art collection 

contained in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Many artists chose to study at the 

well known Art Students' League, where freedom rather than tradition was 

emphasized. Students were interested in the development of art following 

Impressionism and in artists such as Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso. No doubt, 

FitzGerald, having made his decision to study at the Art Students' League, was 

determined to learn as much as possible in the few months that he could afford 

to devote to a full-time study of art. He must have been filled with the hope of 

returning to Winnipeg in the spring of 1922, full of inspiration and new knowledge 

and perhaps with even a new style. 

When FitzGerald arrived in New York in December of 1921, a large 

exhibition, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings had recently closed, 

on September 15th, after having been on view since May 3rd at the Metropolitan 

Museum of Art. This exhibition contained over a hundred paintings, including 

twenty-three by Cezanne, seven by Van Gogh, ten by Gauguin and nine by 



31 

Matisse.^ This exhibition was ranked as the most important exhibition of 

Cezanne's work ever assembled in America to that date. The mere fact that this 

exhibition was organized by the Museum was regarded as proof that Post-
2 

Impressionism had 'arrived' in America. 

Just prior to the closing of the exhibition, an anonymous protest was 

launched against the Museum's Exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist 
Paintings. A group, calling themselves "a Committee of Citizens and Supporters 

3 

of the Museum" voiced their protest in print denouncing Post-Impressionism. 

This protest circulated widely through the mail and in the public press. The 

controversy that developed inspired letters to the Editor, as far away as in the 

London Times. The notoriety this exhibition received assures us that FitzGerald 

would have heard about this show even though it had closed in mid-September. 

He would surely have seen the Exhibition catalogue, with the introduction 

written by Bryson Burroughs, an Art Students' League instructor. It contained 
5 

reproductions of over forty of the paintings exhibited. 

No doubt, FitzGerald's curiosity must have been stimulated and he would 

have gone to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see and study the small collection 

of Post-Impressionists'works contained in the museum's own collection. One of 

the works he would have seen was Cezanne's View of the Domaine Saint Joseph 

of c. 1895-1897. This painting was purchased by the Museum at the Armory Show 

in 1913, for a price higher than any other painting in the Show ($6,700).^ It also 

has the distinction of being the first Cezanne to enter a public collection in America. 

According to the Metropolitan Museum's Catalogue of French Paintings, 



32 

This landscape is one of the very few that satisfied Cezanne 
sufficiently to lead him to sign his name. The fact that he considered 
as finished, and affixed his signature to, a painting which shows many 
areas of bare canvas proves his regard for the contrast he achieved by 
deliberately leaving these places unpainted. The feathery touch of the 
brush and these bare areas relate the picture in style to works of his 
maturity.'' 

This painting was the only Cezanne in the Metropolitan Museum's art collection 

at the time of FitzGerald's first trip to New York in 1921-22. 

Aside from looking at and studying Post Impressionist works on his own, 

FitzGerald may even have attended a talk, Post-Impressionism and its Sequel, 

given by Frank J . Mather, Jr. on January 28, 1922, at 4:0 p.m. at the 
g 

Metropolitan Museum of Art. Talks on Degas and Seurat were given on 
9 

February 18 and March 4, respectively. It is apparent that the interest in Post-

Impressionism had not waned during FitzGerald's stay from December 1921 to 

May 1922. 
FitzGerald's main objective in coming to New York was to study at the 

Art Students' League. The account records of theLeague show that FitzGerald 

took four classes under the direction of Boardman Robinson from December to 

March and two classes under the direction of Kenneth Hayes Miller in March and 

May of 1 9 2 2 . ^ Ayre describes the New York experience, as follows: 

FitzGerald got, as he said afterwards, "a sudden jolt into 
everything" and it knocked him off his balance. For six weeks he did 
nothing but struggle to get his bearings, worried that he was wasting 
his time. Then, with a sudden burst of energy he really started to work. 
Pausing to look at what he was doing one day, the teacher, Boardman 
Robinson, exclaimed in surprise, "What's happened to you?" " O h , I 
just got mad," FitzGerald replied. "Then stay mad." was Robinson's 
advice. FitzGerald stayed mad. He worked almost violently to make 
use of what he was learning. 1 1 



33 

A drawing, its whereabouts is now unknown, is reported by Dr. 
E.J. Thomas, to have a notation on the back to the effect that he had 
found a satisfactory means of expression and that this represented a new 
beginning.^ 

It is difficult to pinpoint what FitzGerald learned at the Art Students' League, 

since it imposed no prescribed courses of study, and therefore no prescribed methods 

of instruction. The standards of instruction were the standards of individual 

instructors who were permitted complete freedom of method. All League instructors 

were practicing artists, selected for their contributions to contemporary art. 

Instructors were hired on a yearly basis and on yearly salaries, so that the number 

of students attracted to an instructor did not in any way determine the instructor's 

salary. The student was as free as the instructor. He could enroll in any class for 

13 

any period. Therefore it can be assumed that FitzGerald selected to study under 

Boardman Robinson (listed as a Muralist) and Kenneth Miller (listed as a Figure 

Painter). 

According to Reid, "It was a moment at the League when ideas were first 

developing that by the end of the decade would emerge as American Scene painting. 

The smooth sculptural modelling that later became the hallmark of that style was 
14 

then being advanced." An analysis of the works of Boardman Robinson and 

Kenneth Miller of the early 1920's, perhaps will shed some light on how 

FitzGerald's study at the Art Students' League influenced his later style. In the 

early 1920's Boardman Robinson was primarily recognized for his political cartooning 
style in The Liberator. According to Milton Brown, he 

. . .had broken away from the older pen and ink tradition of cartooning 
and developed a style of drawing based on that of Michelangelo and 
Daumier, and the more recent French satirists, Forain and Steinlen. It 
was a style of crayon drawing, sketchy, powerful and realistic. 



34 

One of Robinson's earlier political cartoons entitled Cross Breaker 

(July 1912), is typical of his works of the teens and early twenties. It is a 

depiction of the social injustice that impoverished people must face. But rather 

than portraying an actual contemporary incident, Robinson choses to use 

symbolism, depicting a large Christ-like figure pleading for Justice with the 'poor' 

portrayed as the masses at his feet. 

It would appear that FitzGerald admired Robinson's work, but that he was 

more influenced by his mural paintings than his political cartoons. For it is 

known that later, during his trip East in 1930, FitzGerald made a special detour 

to see Robinson's ten murals on the History of Commerce for the Kaufmann 

Department Store in Pittsburgh. On June 11, 1930, FitzGerald wrote in his 

diary, 

. . .spent about an hour (in the Pittsburgh Shop). . . going from 
one (mural) to another . . . . Fairly thinly painted with very 
definite colors and fine drawing and modelling they are indeed a 
fitting climax to the rest of the decoration. They are possibly over 
robust, if anything, but for a departmental store being that is an 
asset. They would, I am sure, improve on second seeing and sorry I 
haven't the time or energy to tackle them in the afternoon. l o 

FitzGerald also tried to see his old art instructor when he visited the Art 

Students' League on June 19, 1930, but unfortunately Robinson was out of town 

at the time of his visit. ^ 

While on his way back to his native Winnipeg in 1922, FitzGerald 

executed Riviere des Prairies, P . Q . (Slide 7), which reveals a solid trace of 

Boardman Robinson's teaching. FitzGerald has completely changed his technique 

of painting, from using the rich impasto, as seen in his impressionistic works, like 



35 

Summer Afternoon, The Prairie, to using (FitzGerald's own description of 

Robinson's murals) "a fairly thinly painted (composition) with very definite 
1 g 

colours and fine drawing and modelling." 

FitzGerald's second instructor while at the Art Students' League was 

Kenneth Miller, whose importance as an art instructor overshadows his efforts as 

a painter. His importance as a teacher is twofold. First, he urged his students 

to see the life of New York around them and second, he revived an interest in 

the technical methods and compositional theories of Renaissance and Baroque 

masters. The latter had the most effect on FitzGerald's art, and the 

compositional arrangements (e.g., pyramidal structure) sometimes used in his 

paintings stem from his awareness of the Renaissance painters, learned under the 

direction of Miller. Miller's own work is described unflatteringly by Milton 

Brown, as being, 
Influenced at first by Davies and Ryder, Miller whose 

sentimentally romantic early style leaned heavily upon the Renaissance, 
was groping for idyllic beauty. Being primarily a teacher, he was too 
prone to academicism, too concerned with theories and methods. 
Even in assimilating Renoir, after 1919, he managed to drain all the 
juice out of the master's lushness, producing globular, porcelain surfaces 
instead of warm vibrant f l e s h . ^ 

This is evident in Miller's painting Fourteenth Street, in that his people appear 

to be only vehicles for the study of human forms. Their bodies are totally revealed 

beneath their twentieth century clothes as though they had been clothed in 

classical wet drapery. 

Exactly what FitzGerald learned from Miller's paintings is difficult to 

surmise. No doubt, his teachings had strengthened FitzGerald's knowledge of the 

anatomy of the human body. The Art Students' League was then, primarily a life 



36 

school. Later, FitzGerald made use of his League training, when he executed 

his nudes of the 1930's - 1940's. 

FitzGerald's six month stay in New York was extremely important to his 

development as an artist, not only because he received his first full-time formal 

art training at the renowned Art Students' League, but also because it provided 

him with an opportunity for a firsthand study of the great masters in painting. 

Ayre writes, "For ever since FitzGerald discovered Cezanne as a student that 

winter in New York, he was intensely aware of structure, and the inevitability 

of forms is to be felt even in his drawings so faint that they can scarcely be seen." 

Certain other characteristics of Cezanne can be seen in FitzGerald's paintings of 

the twenties, which followed his New York experience. 



37 

CHAPTER III 

F O O T N O T E S 

/'An excellent series of articles on this exhibition are contained in: 
Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 16 (1921), pp. 46, 70, 94-96, 118, . 
162, 179, 204-205. 

2 | b i d . , p. 118. 

3 l b i d . , p. 179. 

4 l b i d . , pp. 204-205. 

5 
Loan Exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings 

(Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1921), pp. 1-28. 
^Milton Brown, Armory Show, 50th Anniversary Exhibition Catalogue (New 

York, 1963), p. 51. 

^Charles Sterling, French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of the  
Metropolitan Museum of Art, III, 19th and 20th centuries (Cambridge: Harvard 
University Press, 1967), p. 115. 

8 
Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 17 (1922), p. 23. 

9 
Ibid., p. 47 

'^Winnipeg Art Gallery Files, Art Students' League Account Files, Account 
N o . 3413, Register N o . 1412. 

^RobertAyre, "Painter of the Prairies," Weekend Magazine, 8, 12 (1958), 
p. 29. 

12 
Dale Amundson, "Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald." (University of Manitoba, 

1963) unpublished B.F.A. thesis, p. 10. 
13 

For an excellent account of the aims and history of the Art Students' 
League, refer to: Marchal Landgren, Years of Art: The Story of the Art Students'  
League of New York (New York: Robert McBride and Company, 1940J, pp. 83-112. 



38 

14 Dennis Reid, A Concise History of Canadian Painting (Toronto: Oxford 
University Press, 1973), p. 15. 

15 
Milton Brown, American Painting from the Armory Show to the  

Depression (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955), p. 30. 
'^Karen L. Sens Papers, L.L. FitzGerald, 1930 Diary, June 11, 1930. 

1 7 | b i d . , June 19, 1930. 

" 1 8 lb?d., June 1.1, 1930. 

19 
Brown, American Painting, p. 183. 

20 Robert Ayre, "Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald," Montreal Star, May 3, 1956. 



39 

CHAPTER IV 

NEW DIRECTIONS (JUNE 1922 - M A Y 1929) 

.When FitzGerald returned to Winnipeg in the spring of 1922, he brought 

with him a changed style reflecting his New York experience. What was this style 

and whose influences can be seen in it? 

The first dated expression of his new style is a work, which has already been 

briefly discussed, Riviere des Prairies, P . Q . of 1922. This painting was executed 

on his trip back to Winnipeg, while his New York experience was still fresh in his 

mind. This oil reveals a solid trace of Boardman Robinson's mural technique of a 

"fairly thinly painted composition with definite colours, fine drawing and 

modelling." 

Yet this is not the only influence evident in this painting. It would appear 

that this work, and Potato Patch, Snowflake of 1925 (Slide 8) were influenced by 

Cezanne's View of the Domaine Saint-Joseph. No doubt, he had studied this 

work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and at which time he likely would have 

discovered how effective leaving certain areas of the canvas unpainted had proved 

to be in Cezanne's famous painting and, consciously or unconsciously, began 

experimenting with this method. FitzGerald has used this method particularly 

effectively in his Potato Patch, Snowflake, 1925. Even the general compositional 

arrangement is similar to Cezanne's work. Both paintings depict a large hill 



40 

sloping in front of two smaller hills seen in the right background, only leaving a 

small band of sky at the top of the work. FitzGerald's treatment of the trees and 

surrounding vegetation is also somewhat reminiscent of Cezanne. He blocks in 

his tree and potato plant forms by building up patches of greens and browns, and 

by partially outlining their contours in a darker shade. The very subtle variations 

of tone, even within very small areas, is another characteristic of this work which 

recalls the work of Cezanne. Like Cezanne, he lays a great emphasis on weight 

and balance. He concentrates on the essential physical aspects of his subjects, 

seemingly endeavouring to bestow on them a quality of permanence and timeless-

ness. 

Still other influences than that of Cezanne can be seen in Potato Patch, 

Snowflake of 1925. The apparent influence of Millet has been noted by Bovey. 

She states that FitzGerald 

. . . used a number of devices which Millet himself had worked to 
advantage. FitzGerald shows the figure's full height, giving him a 
monumentality by extending him through three-quarters of the height 
of the canvas. By repeating the colour of the field in the figure itself, 
and by using a rough technique throughout, he successfully fuses the 
farmer with the land. The impact of the figure is increased by the 
strong emphasis FitzGerald gives the hands.' 

Perhaps additional influences of the best known works of Millet can be 

detected in Potato Patch, Snowflake. One must remember that as a grade IV 

student he had seen reproductions of Millet, which according to Ayre, "had 
2 

struck a note but he had not understood." After having seen Millet's paintings 

in the Metropolitan Museum of Art he would have grasped wherein lay the 

greatness of Millet's works. A closer analysis of Potato Patch, Snowflake 

reveals characteristics other than those cited above which suggest Millet's influence. 



41 

FitzGerald has chosen to depict his farm workers as generalized types, by 

placing no emphasis on the figures' facial features. This gives the figures a 

universal quality as being 'types' or 'symbols', rather than individuals. In the 

manner of Millet, he composes a balanced painting, using a slightly modified 

pyramidal arrangement. Like Millet, he sets the figure or group of figures in a 

deep, landscape.in which their large size gives them a monumental quality. 

Reminiscent too of Millet is his unconvincing portrayal of his figures, in their 

roles as hard-working farmers. The position of the figure is vague with respect to 

the actual chore being done. The figure seems to be hoeing the row of cabbage-

like potatoes, yet it appears to be very easy work, requiring little effort. There 

is a certain romantic quality, suggesting the 'good life on the farm1 apparent in works 

of both artists. No doubt, FitzGerald remembered his boyhood days on the farm 

with slightly romanticized memories. One major difference is found in the purpose 

of Millet's paintings and in that of Potato Patch, Snowflake. Whereas Millet it 

would seem intended his figures to be revered as symbols of the good life, FitzGerald 

apparently was not concerned with direct symbolism or reverence for his farm 

figures: the work appears to be a more casually executed painting which contains 

no hidden meanings. 

These works which FitzGerald executed upon his return from New York, 

reflect a new style of painting, which is fairly dependent upon external influences. 

His interest in this new style of painting did not last long and soon after he began 

teaching at the Winnipeg School of Art, he began searching for a new more 

personal style. 



42 

The teaching job at the Winnipeg School of Art represents the beginning 

of a new period in FitzGerald's life. For the first time since his decision to make 

art his livelihood, he was financially secure. The pay was low, but it was a 

steady income on which he could support his family. Prior to this it was through 

small commissions that he was able to provide, however meagerly, for his wife 

and children. His full-time appointment began in September 1924 as an "instructor 

3 4 in Antique, Still Life and Design." He also acted as assistant principal. 

At this time the Winnipeg School of Art had a very limited staff consisting of the 

newly appointed director, Mr. C . K . Gebhardt, an Honour Graduate and past 

instructor at the Chicago Art Institute, who now taught Life Painting, Composition, 

Perspective, Applied and Graphic Arts; L.L. FitzGerald; Mr. W . C . Metge, who 

was an instructor in modelling; and Miss Vera Man, who was the instructor of the 

5 

Saturday Morning Class of Juvenile Antique. 

It is interesting to determine why FitzGerald was selected for this full-time 

position. His relatively recent return from studying in New York, and his known 

interest in art education and in the use of art reproductions in the schools, certainly 

would have made him a good choice for the position of instructor at the Winnipeg 

School of Art. Being a native of Winnipeg would also have added support to his 

selection, as well as the fact that his paintings were receiving increasing 

recognition, particularly in Eastern Canada. Yet, in addition to these reasons, 

it is probable that Frank Johnston, the former Principal of the Winnipeg School of 

Art, was at least partly responsible for the appointment. It has already been noted 

that he probably had suggested to FitzGerald that he should go to New York for 

study. Upon his return, Johnston had offered him a part-time position at the 



43 

School teaching evening classes.^ Before Johnston left his position as Principal 

of the Winnipeg School of Art in the summer of 1924, he undoubtedly recommended 

FitzGerald for a full-time appointment for the fall of that same year. 

The relationship between FitzGerald and Johnston had been quite close 

during the past few years and there is reason to believe that a mutual respect had 

developed. FitzGerald was known to have been impressed with Johnston's work 

and it is probable that Johnston admired FitzGerald's post New York period 

paintings. Likely Johnston would have been impressed with the fact that the 

National Gallery of Canada had purchased their first work from FitzGerald in 

1918, while Johnston himself had not received this recognition until 1922. 

Through an article in The Winnipeg Free Press, is revealed the extent of happiness 

and pride this National recognition had meant to Johnston, "Johnston gave 

expression to the great pleasure it gave him by announcing that he was going to 

show what he felt about it by kissing the first policeman he'd m e e t . " 7 Thus 

Johnston must have respected FitzGerald for having received this recognition 

four years earlier. 

FitzGerald's period as an instructor at the Winnipeg School of Art was of 

great importance and represents a new development in his artistic growth. Ann 

Davis writes, 

In this second period, he turned inward, moving towards a greater 
concentration on a limited number of subjects. He chose to explore the 
variables inherent in his microcosm — be that the view from his window 
or the objects on the window sill — generalizes from there. Herein 
lies the secret and power of his work . . . To help solve some of his 
problems, FitzGerald switched medium, a tactic he was to use time and 
time again. He turned from painting to drawing and drypoint.^ 



4 4 

Although his days as art instructor were rich days for experimentation (primarily 

in his drawings and watercolours), the time restraints teaching made on FitzGerald 

also limited the number of oil paintings he executed during these years. The 

teaching position demanded long hours of concentrated effort. This left little time 

for his own work, except on week ends and holidays. 

The first dated oil which is representative of a new direction and a more 

personal style of painting (that he developed during this period), is Williamson's 

Garage of 1927 (Slide 9). The new clarity and solidity found in this work is a 

result of the endless pencil studies FitzGerald had executed since the mid-twenties. 

In both drawings and dry points, experimenting with various spatial and volumetric 

problems, he developed a clear linear method of working which he later adapted 

to his paintings. This clear solid approach is apparent in his Williamson's Garage, 

as well as in his other works of the late twenties and early thirties. 

In later life, he reflected on how he had developed his new style — first, 

in pencil and then — in paint. 

When I returned to Winnipeg I worked for a long time on small 
pencil drawings . They were very careful studies of trees thoughtfully 
composed into space and carried to as detailed a finish as I could take 
them. This was later extended to prairie studies of large skies and low 
horizons, developed with the same care. When I finally felt I could 
tackle a large canvas, in colour, I made only small preliminary 
composition notes and then painted the whole picture from nature 
making a most detailed drawing on the canvas before beginning the 
painting.^ 

This statement also helps to reveal FitzGerald's method of working during the 

mid to late twenties. 



45 

According to Robert Ayre, "Williamson's Garage was painted in 

FitzGerald's own backyard in St. James, when the temperature was below zero. 

The only concession he made to the cold was to work within a shell, a small shack 

with a stove in it, which he hauled about the yard on runners."^ Unlike his 

post New York paintings (1922-25), which appear to be casually executed and in 

which sections of the canvas were left unpainted, FitzGerald's new style of painting 

is more studied, and employs a very smooth overall technique. Instead of using 

patches of colour to suggest forms, FitzGerald builds up his forms through careful 

modelling. The trees are portrayed with individual qualities, while the garage is 

portrayed in a generalized fashion. It appears to be no more than a roofed cube, 

that acts as a backdrop for the trees. FitzGerald always retained a special 

feeling for trees. In a letter to Brooker, FitzGerald wrote, 

The seeing of a tree, a cloud, an earth form always gives me a 
greater feeling of life than the human body I really sense the life in 
the former and only occasionally in the latter. I rarely feel so free 
in social intercourse with humans as I always feel with trees. 1 1 

Williamson's Garage, like his post New York period works (1922-25), still 

reveals a very classically arranged composition, once again employing the modified 

pyramidal arrangement to give the work its stability. FitzGerald, very conscious 

of balancing his composition, has framed this painting by placing a fence post on 

the extreme left on the canvas and a tree trunk on the extreme right. The 

positioning of the tree and their shadows establish diagonals which direct one's 

attention to the garage depicted in the immediate centre of the canvas. The 

range of colour in this work is fairly limited. 



46 

Unlike Potato Patch, Snowflake, Williamson's Garage is a more realistic 

portrayal of a prairie landscape, displaying a greater concern for form and space. 

FitzGerald would have composed this picture to a certain degree, adding or 

eliminating a tree, to achieve the desired effect, a unified balanced composition. 

Most often this would reduce the scene to its basic elements. It is this 'reduction 

to the essentials' that endows his paintings with their quiet reserved beauty. 

Williamson's Garage of 1927, was purchased in 1929 by the National 

Gallery of Canada for their permanent collection. Bertram Brooker's Yearbook 

lists it as one of the important acquisitions made by the National Gallery in that 

12 

year. The Winnipeg Free Press writes of this important event in FitzGerald's 

career (June 15, 1929). "FitzGerald has been informed from Ottawa that his oil 

painting Williamson's Garage had been acquired for the Canadian National 

•Collection. This came after it was shown at the Ontario Society of Artists and 
the Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto, and also the exhibition of the 

13 
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa." 



47 

CHAPTER IV 

F O O T N O T E S 

' Patricia Bovey, "Some European Influences," Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald 
Exhibition Catalogue (Winnipeg Arg Gallery, 1978), p. 74. 

2 
Ayre Papers, Robert Ayre, "Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, " unpublished 

article, n d . , typescript, p. 6. 
3 
Winnipeg School of Art, "Prospectus, 1924-25," n.p. 

^Letter from Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald to Mr. McFaddin, dated October 1, 
1951. 

5 " Prospectus," 1924-25. 

^Ann Davis, "A North American Artist, " Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald 
(Winnipeg Art Gallery: 1978), p. 32. Davis refers to actual source as being in: 
Ayre Papers, notes on The Winnipeg Tribune article of September 17, 1932, by 
Jocelyn Baker. 

7 
Winnipeg Art Gallery Files, The Winnipeg Free Press, June 15, 1929. 

8 
Davis, Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, p. 32. 

9 
Thomas Papers, L.L. FitzGerald, "Painter of the Prairies," C . B . C . Wednesday Night Talk, (December 1, 1954) typescript, p. 4. 

p. 29. 
1 0Robert Ayre, "Painter of the Prairies, " Weekend Magazine, 8, 12 (1958), 

" Brooker Papers, Letter from L.L. FitzGerald to Bertram Brooker, 
February 19, 1937. 

12 
Bertram Brooker, e d . , Yearbook of the Arts in Canada (Toronto: 

Macmillan C o . of Canada, 1936), p. 75. 
13, The Winnipeg Free Press, June 15, 1929. 



48 

CHAPTER V 

SECOND TRIP EAST (JUNE 1 - JULY 1, 1930) 

Writing to his friend Bertram Brooker on January 11, 1930, FitzGerald 

mentions that he is planning a trip east, that is to go as far as New York, and that 

he intends to visit Toronto for a part of the time he is away.^ On June 1, 1930, 

he embarked on his important trip east which included stops at Minneapolis, 

Chicago, Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Montreal, Ottawa, 

and Toronto. He left the Winnipeg School of Art prior to the end of the Winter 

Session, being able to get leave early because his journey was primarily a business 

trip in the interests of the Winnipeg School of Art. FitzGerald kept a diary while 

on his trip and faithfully wrote anywhere from a paragraph to a few pages each 

day he was away.^ 

The importance of this trip should not be underestimated. First, the trip 

provided FitzGerald with a good representation of current teaching methods and 

theories in American Art Schools as well as information about their administration, 

undoubtedly some of which could hopefully be implemented by the Winnipeg 

School of Art at a later date. Second, the trip gave him an opportunity to make 

contacts in the East, particularly in New York, for future exhibitions and sales 

of his work. It allowed him to establish friendships with his former Art Students' 

League acquaintances, including former students and teachers of the School. 



49 

Third, this trip provided an ideal opportunity to see current American Art. Last, 

but most important in terms of FitzGerald's stylistic development, was his 

rediscovery of the original works by the great modern masters, particularly those 

of the French, like Cezanne, Seurat, Courbet, etc. 

On June 3, 1930, FitzGerald visited the Malker Gallery in Chicago and 

saw a small art school showing. He records in his Diary that there were "mostly 

paintings all showing a decided leaning to the more modern thought and really not 

3 

so sincere in effort as the work being done in our own place." He visited the 

Chicago School of Art and talked to Mr. Kopietz, the Director, for about one 

hour, mostly concerning teaching methods and discipline in the School. FitzGerald 

wrote, 
Returned to school at this time and went from room to room looking 

at equipment and whatever work was on the walls. Possibly the 
commercial side a little over emphasized but they explained that it 
seemed necessary, still believing that the best course for commercial 
workers, the most fine of the Fine Art. . . . Numbers of the classes 
go into the sculpture gallery and draw from the casts. They have a great 
variety including many fine architectural things. . . . A museum is 
indeed a great advantage. 

FitzGerald also talked to Miss Vanderpool, one of the lady instructors at the 

Institute, he wrote, 

Just recently they made it compulsory that every student . . . 
must carry a sketch book. The first time that Miss Vanderpool asked 
them to hand them in, she found the usual thing that is they were 
making drawings rather to fill up the pages than because of a desire 
to analyse a subject that keenly interested them. . . • . she deplored 
the fact that the students that they have today seemed very little 
inclined to exhaust any given subject, to analyse with all the power 
they possessed. And she sighted Monet and his method of spending 
a whole summer on painting a single subject, at various times of the 
day. Of course, that was only one way.*' 



50 

He continued, 
S 

. . . This idea of more self-expression and the relating of all the 
various brands to one thing, seems to again assert itself in this school 
and apparently is a dominating idea in art instruction in the States. 
She is rather elderly and was educated in the old academic idea. 
She expressed the thought that it was difficult to fall in line with 
present art expressions and also difficult to know how far to let the 
students go along these lines. Being reasonably openminded and 
appreciating some of the things being done, the old thought came 
out that feeling has disappeared from paintings. As thoroughly aware 
"that they are done with great thought and draughtsmanship and not 
to be done quickly as they appear on the surface. Also after seeing 
a number of the modern things for a little time it was impossible to go 
into a room of later 19th Century painting and get anything from them 
or want to look at them. The Institute is certainly full of conflicting 
outlooks, as all large school are, from the most academic to the most 
radical and a healthy place for i t . ° 

After having talked to several representatives of the American Art Schools 

including those of the Chicago School of Art and the Pratt Institute, FitzGerald 

concluded that the problems American Art instructors were having, were similar 

to those facing the staff in his own school. One advantage the American schools 

have is that "practically all instructors only spend part time in the school; the 

balance being devoted to their own work. They find this a very good system as they 
7 

keep right up with the*time. " 

FitzGerald went to Lesch's Print Shop in New York City, where he saw a 

lot of very fine colour reproductions of the Moderns. He got information about 

photographic reproductions for the Winnipeg Art School and requested they send 

a copy of their Catalogue of Reproductions to the School. Unfortunately, he does 

not state which reproductions he saw. 

Having talked to the Directors of a few of the more important Art Schools 

of the East, FitzGerald now had gained another perspective on "how art is taught 



51 

It also reaffirmed his own confidence in the methods they were using in his own 

School. The contact he made with Lesch's Print Shop provided him with the 

opportunity to use good quality reproductions of the Moderns. These fine 

reproductions would attempt to balance out the disadvantage of not having a 

famous Museum or Gallery as a resource, where the students could see and study 

the originals. 

FitzGerald was interested in visiting New York for two additional reasons, 

first, a desire to make contacts for future exhibitions and the sale of his works and 

second, to re-establish friendships with old Art School acquaintances, both former 

teachers and students. FitzGerald's overview of New York's receptiveness to 

aspiring Canadian artists is best described in his own words, written in his Diary 

on June 24. "It is a most difficult place to get contacts with people and means a 

considerable effort and much time. One really has to have something to give and 

then give it most enthusiastically." This realization occurred after having talked 
9 

to A . V . Tack and F . K . M . Rehn, two New York Art acquaintances. 

On June 23, FitzGerald had shown his drawings to Tack, and was somewhat 

disappointed by Tack's comment that "he had a long road ahead and to just keep 

on was his advice. He thought the drawings exquisite and the line very sensitive 

but too realistic. FitzGerald found that last remark particularly interesting 
since it "sounds different to what Winnipeg thinks." Tack suggested that 

FitzGerald contact Rehn at the Rehn Gallery and that FitzGerald should say that 

12 

Tack had sent him and "to pile it on thick". When FitzGerald met Rehn, the 

next day, Rehn still remembered him from the old Art School Days. The following 

is FitzGerald's description of Rehn's response to his drawings, 



52 

He looked over the drawings rather hurriedly I thought, making 
very few comments and asking no questions when he was through 
I rather felt that they hadn't impressed him very much leaving me with 
the feeling that there wasn't much chance of any business. I told him 
a few things about myself such as the unsolicited invitations from the 
Arts and Letters Club and the Group of Seven and my own attitude 
towards art and also that I was not in need of money so that sales were 
not necessary and that the artists were buying drawings here and there. 
He suggested I send him six drawings down between now and October 
and he would start with these. Asked the prices I charged and told me 
33 1/3% was his charge for the sales which sounded businesslike enough. 

This is a very small beginning but it is a start and I would much 
rather develop slowly anyway. He is on Fifth A v e . , near 57th St. in 
a comparatively new building and a very nice gallery so that he is 
really growing as Tack said. 'He would be a fine chap to get with.' 
I like the type of thing he is showing and feel quite interested to be 
in such company. He told me his first thought is that he must really 
like the things he (is showing) to be able to sell them and they must not 
be merely so called merchandise to be sold, which I would say is an 
excellent point of view. 1 ̂  

FitzGerald's trip East was only a moderate success in terms of establishing 

contacts in New York and re-establishing friendships with his former Art School 

acquaintances. Due to the shortness of his visit to New York, he was not able 

to locate many of his old art colleagues. In particular, he had hoped to see Boardman 

Robinson, his former instructor at the Art Students' League during 1921-22. 

Unfortunately, Robinson was out of town, so FitzGerald was unable to discuss 

his artistic development of the last eight years with his old colleague. 

It is interesting to discover and to analyze which American artists were 

enjoying some respect and popularity in New York in June of 1930 and FitzGerald 

opinion of their works. The names of the artists who were then currently represented 

in Rehn's Gallery will perhaps provide some insight as to what the progressive art 

galleries were showing. According to FitzGerald's Diary (written in cryptic style), 



53 

A l l the work they are showing is by American painters following 
the modern trend, and some really fine things, Luks, Speicher, Kroll, 
McFee, John Bellow's lithos, (Chas Rosen), Karf I, etc. . . . 
One of Kenneth Hayes Miller's paintings. A particularly lovely 
drawing of two female figures, nude by Carroll in (f ) rubbed and 
then a very direct simple line. I liked this very much. McFee pencil 
drawing of some buildings in trees a hill behind, all liney and much 
in the manner of Cezanne but really fine in conception and an 
individual character, very unified. An early thing by Burchfield of 
a bank of trees, rhythmic swaying lines running across, in greens, had 
a fine feeling and was very simply done. A common ordinary frame 
house treated by Edward Hopper in a most unusual manner became 
quite beautiful. . . . oil by Carroll, I think painted at Woodstock 
has a fascinating quality both of colour and texture and a great sense 
of unity. The whole group looked like carefully selected things each 
containing some very interesting qualities and each distinctive . . . 
I like the type of thing he (Rehn) is showing and feel quite interested 
to be in such company.'^ 

Milton Brown's American Painting from the Armory Show to the Depression, 

describes the developments in art in New York in the twenties and thirties. 

In the 1920's, realism though submerged, grew with cumulative 
strength along various lines. Out of the Ash Can tradition emerged 
three distinct streams — the rural American Scenists, the Social Realists, 
and the Fourteenth Street School. Although all three gained momentum 
during the 1920's, it was not until the economic debacle of 1929 and 
the subsequent depression of the 1930's that new social relationships, 
basic changes in the function of art, and new esthetic conceptions were 
to thrust realism into prominence again. ^ 

The year 1930 was midpoint between these two different directions in art, the 

1920's had been the decade of "French Modernism", while the 1930's were to 

become the decade of "Social A r t " . It would appear that although there was an 

undercurrent of realism, it was the "modern trend", meaning "French Modernism" 

that was prevalent at the time of FitzGerald's trip to New York in 1930. 

What was this "French Modernism" in American painting? Numerous artists 

in the twenties had looked to the great French masters, such as Cezanne, Picasso, 

Matisse for inspiration. The artists FitzGerald mentioned as having been on 



54 

display at the Rehn Gallery were all followers of the "modern trend". 

Leon Kroll had absorbed enough Cezanne to give his work a 
plasticity and slightly modern flavour; . . . Henry Lee McFee 
was considered to have been influenced by Cezanne and Cubism; . . . 
and Bernard Karfoil's technique of linear accents, the broken edges, 
and colour brickwork was reminiscent of C e z a n n e . l o 

Other American artists, like Charles Burchfield, Edward Hopper, John Bellows 

and George Luks were familiar with the "modern trend" but were much more 

interested in realism. Realism in America had continued in the 1920's, though it 

had been somewhat submerged by the stronger and more sensational current of 

modernism. 

FitzGerald's brief visit to New York in June of 1930 had enabled him to 

see the two different directions in American art; "French Modernism" and 

"American Realism". FitzGerald absorbed aspects from these movements and he 

evolved his own method of merging the "regional" aspect, in his case, of the 

prairies, with the new formal values he learned from the Moderns. 

FitzGerald's trip east provided him with a second opportunity to study the 

original works of the "Modern French" artists. He saw most of these works in the 

Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is known that 

FitzGerald immensely enjoyed the works of the "Modern French" masters. On 

June 8, 1930, he sat for more than an hour in the Modern Room of the Chicago 

Art Institute and found it to be the most restful room. FitzGerald particularly 

admired Georges Seurat's Un Dimanche d'ete a la Grande-Jatte (1884-86), 

The very serene and exquisite Seurat; "Sunday in the Park" 
particularly enthused me. In this is a great feeling of reality and the 
people are really doing the things people will do in parks the world 
over. There is a real naivety through it all that only emphasizes the 

• real quality and the colour is beautiful, the feelings of sunlight extremely 



55 

fine and the colour, seems to give the glow that sunlight has. 
The very remarkable thing is that on such a huge canvas, such a 
technique would hold together and be so simple in the great masses 
all little strokes or spots of broken pigment superimposed. 

According to FitzGerald's Diary, this was the major work in the Modern Room. 

FitzGerald was impressed by the common reality of Seurat's subjects, i.e. 

his portrayal of an everyday scene of people in the parks, as well as by the 

universality of the subject, i.e., his portrayal of "parks the world over". Like 

Seurat, FitzGerald, too, was concerned with both common reality and universality. 

In this work, Seurat was still adhering to certain characteristics of Impressionism; 

in the depiction of a contemporary scene, and the interest in sunlight. FitzGerald 

admired the way Seurat could capture "the feelings . . . and . . . glow that 

sunlight has". Seurat juxtaposed light, bright, pure colours, which he applied 

using a broken technique to achieve greater brilliancy. Seurat, like the 

Impressionists, believed that the colour would be more luminous if they were mixed 

by the eye rather than on the palette. However, Seurat became more scientific 

in his application of paint adhering fairly closely to known colour theories. 

In order to study more carefully the interplay of colours and their 
complementaries, Seurat constructed, according to Chevreul's principles, 
a disc on which he brought together all of the hues of the rainbow, joined 
together by a number of intermediate colours: blue, natural ultramarine, 
artificial ultramarine, violet, purple, purple-red, carmine, red, 
vermilion, minium, orange, orange-yellow, yellow, greenish yellow, 
yellow-green, green, emerald green, very greenish blue, greenish 
cyanic blue, greenish blue, cyanic blue I and cyanic blue II, leading 
back to blue and thus closing the circle. In addition, Seurat used white 
which he mixed on his palette with the colours of this circle, thereby 
obtaining a host of tones, from a colour with only a trace of white in it 
to almost pure white. His disc could thus be completed in such a way 
that the pure hues would be concentrated around the center from which 
they would slowly fade toward white, a uniform ring of pure white forming 
the periphery. With the aid of this disc, Seurat could easily locate the 

• complementary of any colour or tone. . . . According to the law of 



56 

contrast a colour achieves its maximum of intensity when brought close 
to its complementary. But while two complementaries enhance each 
other through juxtaposition, they destroy each other when mixed. 
. . . The law of complementaries permits a colour to be toned down or 
intensified without becoming dirty; while not touching the colour 
itself, one can fortify or neutralize it by changing the adjacent colours. 

It is not altogether surprising to discover that Seurat worked on his canvas 

La Grande-Jatte for two years and that he prepared at least twenty preliminary 
19 

drawings and forty colour sketches. 

Seurat's method of creating this work is described by John Rewald in his 

book Post Impressionism from Van Gogh to Gauguin. His description highlights 

Seurat's formalized and scientific approach to painting. 
During the latter part of 1884 he started to make careful studies of 

the landscape and crowds in the public park or the island of La Grande 
Jatte. . . . For these studies done of the spot, on small wooden panels, 
Seurat did not use the slow and meticulous execution of little dots, but 
rather . . . vivid brush strokes, similar to those of the Impressionists. 
His colours, however, were pure, the elements balanced, and the law 
of contrasts observed. These panels, on which Seurat registered the 
particularities of the site and the incidental figures he saw there, were 
to provide the necessary "information" for his work, after being subjected 
to the rigorous requirements of his composition. Whenever he needed 
further details, he had models pose in his studio for drawings in which 
he finally determined the attitudes he wanted. . . . Seurat wished to 
synthesize the landscape in a definite aspect which would perpetuate 
his impression, and to achieve in the figures the same avoidance of the 
accidental and the transitory. . . . Following the precepts of Delacroix, 
he would not begin a composition until he had first determined its 
organization. Guided by tradition and science, he would adjust the 
composition to hhs conception, that is to say he would adapt the lines 
(directions and angles), the chiaroscuro (tones), the colours, to the 
features he wished to make dominant.^ 

Seurat's emphasis on capturing the essential quality of the scene, by 

adjusting the compositional arrangement, was not a concept that was entirely 

new to FitzGerald. In his Williamson's Garage of 1927, this tendency was already 

beginning to reveal itself. Whether this had been a result of his own personal 



5 7 

search, or whether it perhaps was a delayed development stemming from his earlier 

New York experience cannot be determined. Yet this direction was to become 

even stronger upon his return to Winnipeg and can be seen in works, like Doc 

Snider's House of 1931. 

FitzGerald was impressed with Seurat's technique. He wrote in his Diary, 

"The very remarkable thing is that on such a huge canvas, such a technique would 

hold together and be so simple in the great masses all little strokes or spots of 
21 

broken pigment superimposed." Rewald describes Seurat's technique of painting, 
Standing on a ladder, he patiently covered his canvas with tiny 

multi-coloured dots, applied over a first layer of pigment which was 
broadly brushed in. The original layer bound the loosely applied dots 
together and relieved Seurat from the necessity of always assembling 
them tightly. At this task, Seurat invariably centered his attention 
on a single section of the canvas, having previously determined each 
stroke and colour to be applied. Thus he was able to paint steadily 
without having to step back in order to judge the effect obtained or the 
result of optical mixture. . . . He no more needed to consult Chevreul's 
disc than a true poet must count syllables; the law of simultaneous 
contrast had become the guiding principle of his thinking.^ 

Although he admired Seurat's technique and even for short periods of time — 

1948 to 1948 — was strongly influenced by it; he always maintained a certain 

freedom of expression. He appreciated and chose to employ primarily the surface 

texture of Seurat's technique. He also often made use of certain basic colour 

practices like using a complementary colour in shadows, but, ultimately his paintings 

are not so controlled, but rather they represent his personal portrayal of the scene. 

In New York, on June 22, FitzGerald went to the Metropolitan Museum of 

Art, where he once again saw works by the Modern French artists. During this 

visit, he was impressed by the works of Claude Monet. Of the twelve Monets in 

the Metropolitan Museum's collection of 1930, eight were from Mrs. H . O . 



58 

Havemeyer Bequest of 1929. Out of all these paintings, the one that impressed 

him the most was Monet's Sunflowers of 1881. 

A magnificant Sunflower thing of Monet, . . . Painted absolutely 
free and full of movement, much more clear than his later things, and 
lovely in colour. It is very enlightening to see the different things by 
these men and note the development through the different periods, see 
the way they changed. This flower piece of Monet's gave me a ( ) 
and the free technique gives it great charm. All the big men seem to 
automatically do the right thing at the right time and with such apparent 
ease that it seems to have just grown t h e r e . ^ 

The "later things" FitzGerald was referring to were Monet's paintings of the 

early 1890's, like Poplar (1891), Haystacks in the Snow (1891) and Rouen  

Cathedral (1894) owned by and on display at the Metropolitan Museum. These 

paintings are individual works of three of Monet's famous series in which he tried 

to capture every possible different light, atmosphere and weather condition as it 

affected the colour of his subject. All three works show great boldness of vision 

and an attitude of detachment from the subject for the sake of visual impression. 

The forms are so simplified that it gives an almost abstract effect. The colour, 

particularly in Haystacks in the Snow, appears unnaturalistic, and almost arbitrary, 

with violet tones and greenish ochres side by side and shadows depicted in a dominant 

blue. Knowing FitzGerald's concern for structure and precise contours, as opposed 

to the disintegration of mass and form prevalent in these late Impressionistic works, 

it is not surprising that the work FitzGerald most admired by Monet was his much 

earlier, and more naturalistic, Sunflowers (1881). Monet's golden sunflowers 

appear to glow before their complementary background. The technique is one of 

heavy intertwining strokes of pigment which give this canvas its expressive and 

decorative quality. 



59 

On June 21 and 22, while at the Metropolitan Museum, FitzGerald was 

also attracted to the works of Daumier, Corot and Courbet. On June 21, he 

had been particularly impressed with Daumier's The Railway Carriage because of 

its "apparent ease of execution, its powerful drawing and forms and its simplest 

of colour, very much brown being used." The next day he returned to the 

Metropolitan-Museum hoping to absorb and appreciate the "modern stuff" again. 

This time he was attracted by the nudes of Corot, Courbet and Degas. FitzGerald 

was particularly interested in nudes at this time, since he had just been put in 

charge of teaching all the life classes before coming on his trip east. He wrote 

in his Diary, 

These give one an entirely new view of man and it is for the better. 
Fine big simple forms and lovely colour, but very clean distinct painting 
only the backgrounds showing the (painter's) feeling. A Courbet nude 
and one by Corot are together and are equally fine and very much the 
same feeling. That, one could not say of the two landscapes by the same 
men, at least not the feathery ones by Corot. . . . (There are) two or 
three nudes in pastel by Degas, small ones of ladies after the bath. Very 
beautiful drawing and colour, full of great subtleties yet very d i r e c t . ^ 

FitzGerald greatly admired "big simple forms", "lovely colour", which meant 

subtle colour, and "very clean distinct painting". All of these words accurately 

describe FitzGerald's artistic output of the 1930-40's. 

During FitzGerald's visit to the Valentine Gallery on June 20, he saw the 

works of Henri Matisse^ Andre Derain and Raoul Dufy. FitzGerald was enthralled 

by a Dufy of a road with some blue trees. He felt that it was "all treated in a 

25 

most crude way but (was) full of fascination." The next day, while at the 

Metropolitan Museum, FitzGerald reflected back to the Dufy with the blue trees 

and commented, "The Dufy that I saw yesterday had, with all its apparent unreality, 



a great sense of real. Much more than many of the so called realistic things." 

FitzGerald made this comment directly after having discussed Cezanne's paintings 

and the fact that in these works there was "always a great sense of reality, no 
27 

matter how abstract the things may b e . " FitzGerald saw the works of Renoir, 

Van Gogh, Rousseau and Toulouse Lautrec as well as traditional artists, like 

Durer, Breughel, Velasquez, Goya and El Greco. Yet the artist that had the 

most effect and influence on FitzGerald was Paul Cezanne. 

When FitzGerald visited the Metropolitan Museum on June 21, he went 

"to the rooms containing the Havemeyer bequest, immediately to the Cezanne's, 

five in a l l . " FitzGerald described these works in his Diary, 
The still life is a most simple thing with a rather unusual background. 

Rather full in pigment much in the same manner as the head in the 
Phillips collection very freely painted and low toned in colour. All 
three landscapes contain many things that are most useful thoughts. 
Always the edges of the canvas is treated in a most careful manner, 
never at any point overdone but enough variety to keep the eye within. 
A great variation in the colour scheme of the three. One, St. Victoire, 
again, Two, Interior of Woods at Fontainebleau, and Three, the 
Estaque very much the same as the one in Chicago but taken from slightly 
around to the left. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1930 had six paintings by Cezanne in 

their collection. The View of Domaine Saint Joseph purchased in 1913, which 

FitzGerald probably had seen on his 1921-22 trip to New York, and the five 

recently acquired works from the Mrs. H . O . Havemeyer Bequest of 1929. These 

five works were Man in a Straw Hat (c. 1875), Still Life (c. 1875), The Gulf  

of Marseilles seen from L'Estaque (c. 1883), Mont Sainte-Victoire (c. 1885) 

and Rocks in the Forest, formerly called Forest of Fontainebleau (c. 1898). 

FitzGerald makes no mention of the portrait, A Man in a Straw Hat, presumably 



61 

it did not impress him as much as the other four works. 

In Still Life, Cezanne used wallpaper with a geometrical pattern and 

flowers as a background. This is the "unusual background" FitzGerald is referring 

to in his comment about this work. He also felt this work was "rather full in 

pigment, very freely painted and low toned in colour." FitzGerald admired this 

work for its simple composition and subdued colours, but it was the three land-

scapes that FitzGerald admired the most. The earliest, The Gulf of Marseilles 

seen from L'Estaque (c. 1883). FitzGerald remembered a similar painting in 

the Chicago Art Institute which had a compositional resemblance to the one in the 

Metropolitan Museum, but was much less detailed, and was "taken from slightly 

around to the left." This work, in spite of the rich and subtle harmonies of many 

colours, has a strong blue as its dominant tone, which is the source of the painting's 

unified effect of great depth and space. 

The Mont Sainte-Victoire (c. 1885) must have been particularly admired 

by FitzGerald. Meyer Schapiro provides an excellent description of this delicate 

and beautiful work. 

Admirable is the thought of opposing to the distant landscape the 
high tree in the foreground, a form through which the near and far, the 
left and right, become more sharply defined, each with its own mood and 
dominant. Breadth, height, and depth are almost equally developed; 
the balance of these dimensions is one of the sources of the fullness and 
calm of the painting. . . . The contrast of the vertical and horizontal 
is tempered by the many diagonal lines which are graded in slope through 
small intervals. The central, almost vertical tree is one of a series of 
trees more or less tilted, and the most inclined trunk approaches the slope 
of the mountain and the strong diagonal of the road. But this road, too, 
resembles in its sinuous form the long silhouette of the mountain. . . . 
with so many diagonals, there are none that converge in depth in the 
usual perspective foreshortening. On the ground plane of the landscape, 
Cezanne selects diagonals that diverge from the spectator towards the 
sides of the canvas and thus overcomes the tension of a vanishing point, 



62 

with its strong solicitation of the eye. . . . The depth is built up 
by the overlapping of things and through broad horizontal bands set 
one above the other and crossed by the vertical tree and the long 
diagonals. The play of colour contrasts is also a delicate means of 
evoking depth . . . The contrast of warm and cool shifts gradually 
from the foreground couplings of green and yellow to distant couplings 
of blue and rose. . . . The brush work is among the essential beauties 

99 

of this painting and is worth the most careful attention. 

FitzGerald was groping to understand the subtleties and quality of Cezanne's 

works and upon viewing these works, FitzGerald wrote, 
The outstanding quality in all these big things which is being more 
impressed on me, is the terrific sense of unity, everything being 
thought of to keep the eye within the picture and still it remains a 
thing of apparent ease. And always a great sense of reality, no matter 
how abstract the thing may be.^^ 

The last work FitzGerald mentioned was The Forest of Fontainebleau (c. 1898). 

In this late painting Cezanne has expressed the vital force and essential rhythms of 

this landscape. This purple landscape has a disturbing quality, unlike his earlier 

serene and calm work, like The Mont Sainte-Victoire. Although FitzGerald may 

have appreciated the "reality" of this painting, it would appear that Cezanne's 

earlier works had more influence on FitzGerald's style upon his return to Winnipeg. 

On June 22, he returned to the Metropolitan Museum, he writes, "Had 
31 

a long time with the Cezanne's again and more in love with them than ever." 

FitzGerald was most impressed by two important aspects of Cezanne's work, his 

"terrific sense of unity", and by the "great sense of reality, no matter how abstract 

the things may b e . " 

On June 29, FitzGerald summarizes the effect, seeing the works of the 

"French Moderns" and the works of Cezanne, in particular , had on him. 

FitzGerald now felt that, 



63 

Purely abstract (work) has a tendency to lose contact with the 
living. . . and that the move today is rather a swing towards an 
inspiration from nature. An eternal contact with humanity and nature 
and a greater sense of unity. This has been very strongly impressed on 
me during this trip. The sense of unifying all the elements in a picture 
to the making of a creation. The picture, a living thing, one great 
thought made up of many details but all subordinated to the w h o l e . ^ 

On June 3 0 , he went over to the Metropolitan Museum "for a final review 

of some of the things to try and find a little more wherein lay the greatness of 

33 

Cezanne and Courbet, e t c . " The final comments clearly shows; what he 

felt the influence of having seen the works of the Moderns would have on the 

development of his own personal style. 
Enjoyed them all over again and got a little more intimate with 

some of the things? Finally, I feel that each one of us must go on with 
' our ideas as they present, themselves, and try and work out our salvation 

that way, as one feels all the big men did. It is a great inspiration 
seeing these things and how they are developed but only an inspiration, 
because they went right on as they f e l t . ^ 



64 

CHAPTER V 

F O O T N O T E S 

^Brooker Papers, Letter from L.L. FitzGerald to Bertram Brooker, January 11, 
1930.' 

2 
In July of 1975, I met Pat Morrison, FitzGerald's daughter in her home in 

Toronto. She allowed me to xerox FitzGerald's Diary and certain letters in her 
possession. I also saw his early sketchbooks at this time. Mrs. Morrison still 
owned, and I photographed, many of the still life objects which her dad had used 
as subjects in his paintings . Just prior to her death in October 1976, Mrs. Pat 
Morrison gave FitzGerald's Diary, his sketchbooks as well as a number of drawings 
to the University of Manitoba. The University has now opened a FitzGerald Study  
Centre. 

3 

Karen L. Sens Papers, L.L. FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, June 3, 1930. 

4 l b i d . , June 7, 1930. 

5 i b i d . 

6 l b i d . 

7 l b i d . , June 27, 1930. 

8 ! b i d . , June 24, 1930. 

9 
As previously stated, FitzGerald had met Augustus Vincent Tack (1870 -

1949) in 1920. (Refer to Chapter II, footnote 17.) In 1930, while in New York, 
FitzGerald went to see-Tack's decoration of the Paulist Church. FitzGerald 
wrote (June 23, 1930), "Tack's decoration is very fine. A big simple thing and 
much in the spirit of the building." Tack was a friend of Frank Knox Morton Rehn, 
an artist who owned the Rehn Gallery on Fifth Ave. (New York), which primarily 
exhibited American prints and sculptures. 

1 0Sens Papers, L.L. FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, June 23, 1930. 

1 1 Ibid. 



65 

1 2 l b i d . 

1 3 | b i d . , June 24, 1930. 

14 
Ibid., Unfortunately this section of FitzGerald's Diary is particularly is 

particularly difficult to read. 
15 

Milton Brown, American Painting from the Armory Show to the Depression 
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955), p. 196. 

1 6 ! b i d . , pp. 82, 196, 156. 

1 7Sens Papers, L.L. FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, June 8, 1930. 

18 

im 

19 

f P 
20 

Ĵohn Rewald, Post-Impressionism from Van Gogh to Gauguin (New York: 
Museum of Modern Art, n.d.), pp. 82-83. 

^H.H. Arnason, History of Modern Art (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 
n.d.), p. 37. 

Rewald, Post-Impressionism, p. 84. 

2 1 Sens Papers, L.L. FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, June 8, 1930. 

22 
Rewald, Post-Impressionism, p. 86. 

23 
Sens Papers, L.L. FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, June 22, 1930. Unfortunately 

one cannot always decipher FitzGerald's handwriting. 

2 4 ! b i d . 

2 5 | b i d . , June 20, 1930. 

2 6 | b i d . , June 21, 1930. 

2 7 | b i d . 

2 8 ! b i d . 

29 
Meyer Schapiro, Paul Cezanne (New York: Harry N . Abrams, Inc., n.d.), 

p. 66. 
30 Sens Papers, L.L. FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, June 21, 1930. 

3 1 Ibid., June 22, 1930. 



32 Ibid., June 29, 1930. 

3 3 I b i d . , June 30, 1930. 

" i b i d . 



67 

CHAPTER VI 

TOWARDS MORE PERSONAL EXPRESSIONS  

(JULY 1930 - AUGUST 1947) 

Prior to the trip to the East, in December of 1929, FitzGerald had started 

a large oil painting, which would take him two years to complete. This work is 

entitled Doc Snider's House (Slide 11). In FitzGerald's letters to Bertram 

Brooker, he makes several references to this work. On January 11, 1930, he 

wrote, 

During the two weeks of the Christmas holidays, I put in some 
time each day, working on a larger canvas of some trees in the front 
yard with the buildings next door. This will keep me busy for the rest 
of the winter over the weekends. I am putting in every bit of my spare 
time on some kind of work and hope that my winter will be generally 
profitable. Saturday afternoons are spent drawing or painting from the 
model, just so I won't get out of touch with the structure, etc. keeping 
up with my life class. This year, I am in charge of all the life work we 
do in the school so that I am really studying, theoretically from the 
model every day. This, of course, is a great advantage. 

On April 18, 1931, FitzGerald wrote, responding to Brooker's request to 

send some paintings for exhibition purposes, 

I have a goodly number of drawings from the nude, made this 
winter from which might be selected two or three that would be 
suitable for an exhibition but the painting that I am working on is not 
in any condition for that purpose, nor as far as I can judge, will be 
till next winter sometimes. The other paintings that I have are not 
things that I would feel like showing in such an exhibition as you 
suggest. Nevertheless, I certainly would like to be in on it, if at all 
possible. 



68 

On June 13, 1931, FitzGerald happily announces to Brooker that this 

large painting, Doc Snider's House, is completed. 

The large winter picture is finished and I am almost tempted to 
say that it has some satisfying qualities, that is if I don't look at it 
for any great length of time. You will be interested at any rate 
because it is a little more unified than some of the more recent ones, 
in the last two or three years. Two others of lesser dimensions are on 
the way and as all things at this stage of development look promising 
and hopeful as usual. The artist is most decidedly an optimist at all 
'times, hopeful that the next one will be the supreme effort and so we 
live between the great heights and greater depths. 

At the moment, I have decided to spend most of the holidays painting 
rather than working in pencil, hoping that a steady spell of work with 
colour will assist me to a greater appreciation of form and the means to 
express it.^ 

The year 1931 was a particularly productive year for FitzGerald in terms 

of oils, completing more than nine dated oil paintings, including his large Doc 
4 

Snider's House. FitzGerald's Eastern trip must have provided him with the 

stimulus to be able to draw on so much creative energy, while maintaining his 

5 

teaching and administrative role at the Winnipeg School of Art. 

Doc Snider's House is the highlight of this stage in his development. The 

style and concerns FitzGerald displays in this work are typical of his works of the 

early thirties. Doc Snider's House is a natural extension of his Williamson's 

Garage, and appears to be the culmination of his smooth sculptural technique 

of painting. 
Doc Snider's House is somewhat reminiscent of Cezanne's Mont Sainte-

Victoire (which FitzGerald had seen at the Metropolitan Museum while in New 

York in 1930) in its compositional arrangement. FitzGerald has clearly defined 

his space by placing a high tree in the foreground. There is also a satisfying 



balance achieved in the relationship between the height and breath of the 

composition, as well as in the arrangement of horizontals and verticals. Like 

Cezanne, FitzGerald selects diagonals that diverge towards the edges of the 

canvas thereby eliminating the strong focal point, that was evident in Williamson's  

Garage. Even FitzGerald's method of creating depth through overlapping evokes 

the works of Cezanne. Unlike Williamson's Garage which depicted three large, 

almost entirely independent free standing trees, the ten trees depicted in Doc 

Snider's House appear to be almost interwoven and are definitely interdependent. 

The beautiful correlation between forms is evident throughout this painting. One 

fine example is how the one branch of the tree in the foreground reflects the 

sloping snow covered roof line of the house on the left of the canvas. 

The delicate changes in colour,also help to create depth in the painting. 

The snow in the foreground and on the roofs of the houses closer to the viewer 

is lighter in colour than the snow in the more distant space and on the roof of the 

house in the background. His delicate colouring also helps to create the unity 

apparent in this work. The dominant colour in this work is mauve, which is used 

to depict the shadows in the rainbow-coloured snow, and is reflected in the sky. 

Even the trees due to their fuxtaposition with the snow, appear to have a purplish 

tone. 

FitzGerald, it is known, enjoyed working directly from nature in all types 

of weather. While painting Doc Snider's House, FitzGerald stayed in a little 

shack with a stove in it, which he pulled about on runners.^ Although FitzGerald 

often painted directly from nature, he, like Cezanne and Seurat, was not opposed 

to eliminating, adding or simplifying the features of the scene in front of him, to 



70 

create a more harmonious and unified painting. Doc Snider's House is a care-

fully thought out and executed painting, which leaves nothing to chance. A 

sense of order prevails. A sense of static, timelessness is achieved by his use of 

light. It is not the impressionistic light of early morning or evening or of noon, 

it is a light that is uniform, enduring, strong, steady and clear. This all 

revealing light also acts as a unifying agent in the painting. 

Doc Snider's House reveals and expresses in paint the discoveries 

FitzGerald made during his trip to New York. FitzGerald's own Diary description 

of the characteristics of works of Cezanne, Seurat, and of the other "big men" 

now seem to apply to his own works. 

The outstanding quality in all these big things which is being more 
impressed on me, is the terrific sense of unity, everything's being 
thought of to keep the eye within the picture and still it remains a thing 
of apparent ease. 

The sense of unifying all the elements in a picture to the making 
of a creation, the picture, a living thing, one great thought made up 
of many details but all subordinated to the whole.^ 

FitzGerald himself realized that his Doc Snider's House was more unified 

than his previous works had been. This unification, no doubt, came as a result 

of having seen and studied the works of Cezanne. A relationship between 

FitzGerald and Cezanne was already noticed by a member of the Group of 

Seven in 1931. Arthur Lismer, referring to a FitzGerald still life that Brooker 

had hanging on his wall next to a fine Cezanne reproduction, commented that 
9 

FitzGerald's painting "stood up extremely welI beside i t . " Yet, FitzGerald's 

Doc Snider's House is very different to the works of Cezanne or Seurat, with 

respect to the technique. FitzGerald's painting shows much more concern for 



71 

linear clarity, smooth sculptural forms and a meticulous paint application. 

What other influences had FitzGerald absorbed that may be found in this painting? 

It is possible that FitzGerald's interest in structure was, in part, a result of his 

constant opportunity to work on life studies at the Winnipeg School of Art. Yet 

perhaps a more important influence on FitzGerald was his two trips to New York. 

It is probable that FitzGerald, while a student at the Art Students' League 
t 

(1921-22), was introduced to the smooth sculptural modelling, which later 

became associated with "American Scene" p a i n t i n g . ^ Certainly his instructor 

Kenneth Miller was already in 1921-22 painting in a technique which is not 

unlike FitzGerald's smooth and precise technique of the early 1930's. FitzGerald's 

interest in a precise, smooth method of painting, a technique which does not 

compete for the viewer's attention, but acts as a means to reveal the subject, 

was reaffirmed during his trip to the East in 1930. 

While at the Chicago Art Institute (1930), FitzGerald admired the work 

of Charles Sheeler, and wrote, "a drawing by Sheeler particularly attracted me, 

a pencil drawing of some low buildings seen against some skyscrapers 

a very powerful, extremely careful rendering . . . " " He also saw 

and admired the works of other "American Scene" painters like Charles Burchfield 

and Edward Hopper. -Seeing the works by these artists simply reaffirmed 

FitzGerald's own conviction that one should only, 

Consider technique as a means by which you say what you have to 
say and not as an end in itself. What you have to say is of first importance, 
how you say it is always secondary.1^ 



72 

FitzGerald's remarks, regarding the role technique should play in a painting, 

are recorded in his Diary, while in Chicago on June 7, 1930. 

. . . from it all there comes the thought that good honest work, 
without any tricky technique is fust as it has always been the great 
thing. The technique is so much a part of all the bigger things that 
one only sees it by thinking of it from a painter's angle. Each of us 
has something to say in paint about our contact with life, no matter 
how small it may be and the conclusions arrived at seems always the 
same, that is to work first and foremost and to be as little conscious 

. of the way we are saying it as possible. To be so wrapped up in 
the thing to be said, that the means are very much in the background. 
And these conclusions are the same now as previous to studying these 
things.'^ 

Doc Snider's House (1931) was FitzGerald's first major work completed 

upon the return of his second trip to the East. FitzGerald's smooth sculptural 

technique is ideally suited to the subject matter, a frozen winter landscape on a 

clear day. The crisp clarity so typical of winter days on the prairies is perfectly 

.expressed by the clear delineation of forms. FitzGerald's careful modelling 

gives the forms their solidity. Even the snow displays the weight and firmness, 

that differentiates the frozen snow drifts typical of Winnipeg, from the more 

fluffy variety found in the warmer parts of Canada. In this work the smooth 

technique is such an integral part of the painting that, as already noted, "one 

14 
only sees it by thinking of it from a painter's angle." 

Unfortunately, 1931, a year of good productivity in terms of oil painting, 

ended in December with FitzGerald getting pneumonia. This illness weakened 

his physical condition to the degree that up to a year afterwards he was still not 

completely recovered. His illness also seems to mark the beginning of a long 

drought in terms of oil painting. During this period, which lasted up until 1937, 

FitzGerald turned his limited energies towards drawing. 



73 

During this period, the demands of his job were quite strenuous. He was 

teaching art five and one-half days as well as three evenings a week, and his 

working time was further reduced by his rule of painting only in daylight hours. 

This limited his time to draw and paint to lunch and supper hours, week ends and 

15 

school breaks. To add to this already heavy load, the Winnipeg School of 

Art was now trying to get a gallery started, which required a great deal of time 

and drained a considerable amount of energy from an already tired FitzGerald. 

In a letter to Brooker dated January 12, 1933, FitzGerald wrote, 
We are still trying to get our gallery started. It seems a large 

task, requiring a lot of discussion from many sides, with the result that 
the action is very slow. Like all civic affairs, it has awakened people 
that have been more or less unknown in the art worldwho seemed to have 
suddenly come to the surface looking for a little publicity . . . . The 
School seems to require all the energy that I can spare or nearly so and 
if I have any left plus time I very much prefer to paint than enter into 
the wrangling over this t h i n g . 1 6 

From 1932 up to 1937, although FitzGerald executed a few small oils, none were 

considered by him to be of any major importance and he did not complete even 

one large canvas during this period. Writing to Brooker on December 4, 1937, 

FitzGerald explains that he feels he has only been "marking time" when it comes 

to painting. 

No one regrets more than I do, my not being represented at the 
show with a painting. The one that I was working on, a still life, 
wasn't finished in time and now that it is finished, I doubt if it would 
have gone. It is interesting but I don't feel that it quite hit the mark. 
For quite a time I have been more or less marking time with the painting 
part of the game, working at something but never quite reaching a 
satisfactory conclusion. For the last four months, I have been working 
all the spare time on this and am feeling hopeful that I may reach some 
satisfactory results.1^ 



74 

On March 18, 1937, FitzGerald responds to the request of Harry McCurry 

(Assistant Director of the National Gallery of Canada) for paintings for exhibition 

purposes, and very openly explains why he does not have many paintings to offer 

for exhibition at this time. 

I wasn't holding out on you but was quite honest when I sent the 
"Apples" as the only painting I had worthy of being submitted for such 
an important exhibition. Possibly, I might go further and say that I 
haven't any painting to submit to any show, not even a house party. 
For some reason, I haven't been painting for quite a while, but drawing. 
Result no paintings. 

I am not defending my position but just giving you the facts. For 
the time being the drawings seem to.satisfy my desire to create and I 
am egotist enough to think that some of them are darn fine things with 
just as much in them as any painting I have done. Granted they are 
not dramatic enough either in size or technique to make good exhibition 
material, but then I haven't been for many years, an exhibition hound, 
as you well know. 

Another thing, I demand a great deal, in either a drawing or a 
painting of myself, being satisfied with only what I feel is the best I 
can produce at the time, with the result that I work very slowly and 
a long period over each work. "Doc Snider's House" represents two 
winters, including two full weeks each Christmas vacation as well as 
all weekends. I can't go home Saturday and by Monday morning have 
a canvas completed, as seems possible to so many others. That, is 
impossible. 

Still another phase of this thing, as you are well aware and I am 
sure regret, the artists in our country, with few exceptions, find it 
necessary to make their "bread and butter" by other means than painting 
pictures. After all, continuous practice is essential to the maximum 
development in any craft, how much more essential is it, where the 
craft is combined with such a subtle quantity as creative force. 
(And this is not so called "artistic temperament" but just honest to 
goodness common sense.) 

Again there are well defined phases in the development of the 
artist. Periods of distinctive growth and those of questioning and 
experiment, when during the latter, everything done is a struggling 
towards a larger outlook, yet has the appearance on the surface of 
"marking time". Thank goodness I have been face to face with a 
few of these and have managed to scramble over the top each.time. 



As a matter of fact, I am glad of having had to face them no matter 
how difficult rather than to have gone on blindly repeating myself. 
. . . I felt I should make plain the reason for the lack of paintings 
which I hope I have done to some extent.^ 

This letter is very revealing and helps to shed light on FitzGerald's stylistic 

development. This trip to the East resulted in a lot of discoveries, which made 

1931 a very profitable year. Yet having taken his smooth sculptural style to its 

full expression in Doc Snider's House, FitzGerald realized he needed a new 

means of expression. He did not want to just go on blindly repeating himself. 
19 

From 1932 to 1937, FitzGerald had felt that he had been just marking time. 

Yet this period, through the medium of drawings, had been a time of questioning 

and experimenting, which resulted in the late thirties and early forties (1938-40) 

once again being a time of distinctive growth. 

The first work which displays FitzGerald's new means of expression is Jar 

of 1938. While similar in many respects to his earlier Doc Snider's House, 

there are also some important differences, that are apparent. (These differences 

find their fullest expression in Still Life: Apples of 1940.) Many of the works 

of the late thirties and forties, are still lifes. The major importance of FitzGerald1 

apparent preference for still lifes at this time, is that they allowed him a more 

intense search into the formal concerns of painting. By concentrating on a 

limited subject, of only one or two objects, FitzGerald could focus his attention 

more directly and intensely. 

FitzGerald must have been pleased with his new means of expression, 

20 
because he selected Jar to be included in the important 1938 Tate exhibition. 



76 

Had he felt this painting had not met the mark, he certainly would not have sent 

it to the National Gallery to be included in this important Canadian exhibition 

to be held in London. An unsigned letter, though unquestionably written by 

Harry McCurry of the National Gallery to FitzGerald, dated May 4, 1938, reads, 

As you may have heard, we are pulling off a grand Canadian 
exhibition at the Tate Gallery this autumn. It is to be called "A Century 
of Canadian Art" beginning with Krieghoff, Kane . . . with emphasis 
on the last twenty-five years. 

The writer humorously adds, 

Most of the work is being drawn from the National Gallery Collection 
and other public and private collections but where an outstanding work 
by an important artist (like yourself) is not available then ye poor artist 
must get to work and paint one unless he can find one in the attic some-
where. 

Seriously, this is a very important occasion and we must have a good 
FitzGerald of an adequate size to include in this exhibition. We would 
be happy to send "Doc Snider's House" if it were here but the trouble is 
we lent it to the Southern Dominion Exhibition and that will not be back 
in Canada for another six months or a year. The only other thing of 
yours we have is "Williamson's Garage" and while it is excellent it is 
a bit too small and besides we would prefer to have one of your pictures 
for sale because who knows the Tate authorities may be persuaded to buy 
one or two. So do your best.^ 

Jar (Slide 12) represents the "best" in FitzGerald's work from the 1932 to 

1938 period. In this painting he has retained the emphasis on form and the 

solidity found in Doc Snider's House, but his depiction of space in the former is 

very unnaturalistic. It is evident that FitzGerald is now moving towards more 

purely formal concerns. 

Jar provides an interesting comparison with Cezanne's Still Life (c. 1875) 

which FitzGerald saw while at the Metropolitan Museum in 1930. Upon seeing 

22 
it he had remarked that it had "an unusual background". For his background 



7 7 

Cezanne had used wallpaper with a geometrical diamond-shaped design. In 

the centre of this painting, there is a mug with a prominent handle protruding 

from the side. Directly behind and slightly to the left of this mug is the only 

intersection of the two whole diamond shapes on the wallpaper. This intersection 

tends to focus our attention on the mug. In Jar a similar compositional arrangement 

is evident. In the centre foreground, there is a large fug with a protruding 

handle and directly behind and slightly over to the left is the dominant inter-

section of forms. Exactly what these forms are, is not clearly evident. Although 

the red form is presumed to be the table the jug is resting on. The purpose for 

using this type of background appears to be the same in both cases. It places the 

objects in a very limited space and focuses our attention, more intensely on them. 

This background of intersecting angles and planes also reveals FitzGerald's formal 

concerns which would later lead him to abstraction. 

Another device FitzGerald uses is tilting the table top towards the viewer, 

which serves — in the manner of Cezanne — to compress the space. Schapiro 

explains this concept very concretely in his description of Cezanne's Still Life 

with Basket of Apples (Art Institute of Chicago), 

The odd tilting of the bottle must be understood in relation to other 
instabilities as part of a problem: to create a balanced whole in which 
some elements are themselves unbalanced. In older art this was done 
with figures in motion, or with a sloping ground, or hanging curtains 
and reclining objects. What is new in Cezanne is the unstable axis of 
a vertical object — a seated figure, a house, a bottle. Such deviations 
make the final equilibrium of the picture seem more evidently an 
achievement of the artist rather than an imitation of an already existing 
stability in nature.^3 

FitzGerald's Jar, likely under the influence of Cezanne, also is tilted forward 

into the viewer's space. Tilting the objects compresses the space, therefore the 



table and jug seem nearer to the viewer and can be more strongly felt as objects. 

It would appear that since FitzGerald's 1930 trip to New York, he responded at 

least to some degree to these "new" compositional methods. 

FitzGerald probably had admired Cezanne's selection of still life objects 

and how they are depicted. This awareness and admiration of Cezanne's still lifes 

is apparent in FitzGerald's attempt to render the dignity of commonplace objects. 

Traditional still lifes suggest man as the master and the objects of the still life 

as intended for his use: sensuous foods to be eaten, books to be read, utensils 

to be handled, etc. Neither Cezanne's nor FitzGerald's objects display this 

purpose. Both render their apples as hard roundish forms, which were never 

intended to be regarded as something to eat. Their objects are always above this 

servitude to man. Dignity permeates every object whether it is a common brown 

jug or two apples. Like Cezanne's works, FitzGerald's subjects assume a 

character of permanence, monumentality and universality. 

Jar retains the clarity of outline found in his earlier, Doc Snider's House. 

In technique there has been a noticeable change from the smooth sculptural style 

seen in Doc Snider's House which almost denied the painted surface, to a still 

meticulous but more stippled technique which tends to attract the viewer's 

attention more readily than the previous technique. This stippled technique tends 

to soften the very angular qualities of Jar. The modelling of forms in Jar is 

also quite different to those in Doc Snider's House. While the emphasis is still 

on 'plastic sculptural qualities', the smoothness of the earlier work has gone. 

Instead the jug, reminiscent of Cezanne's treatment, is not depicted with 



naturally smooth rounded sides, but rather is depicted as having fairly angular 

facets, particularly noticeable on the body of the jug directly below the handle. 

The subdued autumn-toned colours of the work were FitzGerald's preference and 

give the work its still and 'reverent' quality. 

Still Life: Two Apples of 1940 (Slide 13) is the culmination of the new 

means of expression and interest in formal concerns seen in Jar of two years earlier. 
* 

FitzGerald appears to have'been obsessed by apples and drew and painted them 

throughout the thirties and even well into the forties. According to Robert Bruce, 

an art instructor at the Winnipeg School of Art, FitzGerald "painted apples for 
24 

three winters, " during the 1930's. Why was FitzGerald so fascinated with 

apples? Perhaps by looking to Cezanne, a reason may be suggested. According 

to H . H . Arnason, Cezanne himself was obsessed by a desire to paint apples 

because they were a challenge, a problem. He states that, 
It was the three dimensional form most difficult to control as 

a separate object or to assimilate into the larger unity of the canvas. 
To attain this goal and at the same time to preserve the nature of the 
individual object, he modulated the circular forms with small, flat 
brush strokes distorted the shape, and loosened or broke the contours 
to set up spatial tensions among the objects and thereby unifying them 
as colour areas.^5 

It would seem that apples also offered a challenge to FitzGerald probably 

for similar reasons. He was certainly aware of the relationships between objects 

in a painting, and how they effect the unity of the composition. He also had a 

strong desire to explore, "to exhaust (a)given subject, to analyse with all the 
26 

power (he) possessed." FitzGerald recognized that Monet had done this by 

"spending a whole summer painting a single subject, at various times of the day. 



80 

Of course this was only one method. He also realized that this would not 

be his method. Ayre records FitzGerald's method. 

It is necessary to get inside the object and push it out rather than 
merely building it up from the outer aspect to appreciate its structure 
and living quality rather than the surface only. This requires endless 
search and contemplation. Continuous effort and experiment. An 
appreciation for the endlessness of the living force which seems to pervade 
and flow through all natural forms, even though these seem on the surface 
to be so ephemeral. . . . It is evident that no one object can be 
segregated in space without the feeling of something around it, and 
usually it is associated with other objects. The appreciation of the 
relation, of one object to another and their effect on one another will 
help to suggest the sense of solidity of each. The obvious section 
of any object that will be effected most by its surroundings is the edge 
with the result that in drawing or painting, this part is given greatest 
attention and most careful consideration. The solidity of the objects 
depends to a great extent on how the transition from one to the other 
is carried out. And at this point also the homogenity of the composition 
is to a great extent developed.28 

Thus apples provided him with a convenient, inexpensive subject through which 

to explore relationships and compositional unity. 

In Still Life: Two Apples, FitzGerald answers the problem of how to depict 

two apples, revealing their relationship and effect on each other and how to 

assimilate them into the larger unity of the canvas. FitzGerald has chosen to 

depict only two apples which adds to the challenge of unifying the composition. 

By choosing three and placing them in a pyramidal group would have immediately 

resulted in a stable composition. Two apples, however, is more challenging since 

their positioning (formal arrangement) is all important to making it an interesting 

and complete painting. FitzGerald places the larger apples slightly right of 

centre and tilts it slightly right and forward, while he places the smaller apple 

slightly left of centre and tilts it to the left and away from the viewer. 



The delicate relationship between these two forms is both complex and 

beautiful. While the larger apple is seen from the top, revealing the high 

viewpoint, FitzGerald has placed the smaller apple so that the viewer can see a 

29 

suggestion of the bottom of the apple. The modelling of the larger apple's 

left side with its flat brushstrokes allowing distortion of the apple's shape and 

creating three noticeable facets, breaks the naturally round contour and sets up 

a spatial tension with the smaller apple. By using a similar but less noticeable 

treatment on the smaller apple, FitzGerald has unified them as colour areas. 

Balance is achieved through FitzGerald's colouring. He has placed the red 

side of the larger apple next to the green side of the smaller apple, knowing the 

vibrancy that results from the juxtaposition of complementary colours. This 

arrangement also sets up a nice pattern of green, red, green, red as the viewer's 

eye moves from left to right across the canvas. The larger apple's physical 

size is balanced by smaller apple's more dominant shadow, as well as by its 

closer positioning to the viewer. 

FitzGerald's still life appears once again to be resting on a tilted table 

which compresses the space and makes us more aware of the two apples as solid 

objects. In Still Life: Two Apples the table is covered with a white tablecloth, 

the folds, perhaps evident in a tablecloth that has been firmly pressed and folded 

away in a closet, are exaggerated to create small ridges and valleys. The 

intersection of these folds occurs directly below and slightly to the right of the 

centre of the larger apple. In Jar FitzGerald found that the intersecting plane 

of the table was an effective way to set off the jug. Now in Still Life: Two 

Apples, FitzGerald directs the viewer's attention to the smaller apple by the 



82 

use of the same slanted intersecting line. He must have been pleased with the 

formal arrangement found in Jar, because even the slant of the window ledge, 

reoccurs in the slant of the extreme left of the tablecloth. Thus Still Life: Two 

Apples bears many similarities with its earlier counterpart, Jar. Both paintings 

display the same high viewpoint which tends to flatten the objects. Both are 

very simple compositions containing few objects seen with respect to the inter-

secting lines of their very limited background space. 

FitzGerald's interest in formal concerns is paramount. In Jar and Still 

Life: Two Apples FitzGerald's later tendency towards abstraction is already 

revealed. These paintings by FitzGerald were the product of meticulous formal 

organization and in a sense are nearer to abstraction than to realistic representation. 

Still Life: Two Apples has taken the stipple technique emerging in Jar, to 

an even further degree and this technique becomes fairly typical of his works of 

the forties. Yet the richness of texture was never again as forcefully expressed. 

In Still Life: Two Apples, FitzGerald painted the longer dabs of paint with the 

sides of his narrow brush or with his curved palette knife while the point-like 

dabs he created by using just the tip of his brush. Using a thick solid paint, 

these dabs stood out in relief from the canvas. This created a quite noticeable 

pattern in the painting, and being an overall technique added to the unity of the 

composition. In FitzGerald's later works, like From An Upstairs Window, Winter 

(1948), this technique is far less noticeable although a definite trace of it is still 

evident. 



83 

The technique displayed in Still Life: Two Apples appears reminiscent of 

the works of Georges Seurat. Yet this apparent resemblance is a purely super-

ficial one. FitzGerald, as previously noted, had admired Seurat's technique of 

3C 

painting, when he saw his La Grande Jatte at the Chicago Art Institute in 1930. 

But the techniques of the two artist are very different. Seurat's was based on 

colour theories, whereas FitzGerald adapted the technique into a purely personal 

interpretation, which was not involved in scientific principles. Therefore, 

although FitzGerald's paintings of the thirties and forties reveal certain influences 

of the works of "Modern" French artists, he has evolved a style, that is strictly 

his own. These works are a reflection of the quiet, contemplative, questioning 

man that created them. 

FitzGerald was pleased with his new means of expression and his new 

technique. Yet he wished to further intensify his search. Writing to Harry 

McCurry on October 25, 1940, he reflects back on his past two years of painting, 
. . . I have been working in a little different direction, through 
some smaller paintings and larger drawings, and through these, new 
ideas have taken form that could be matured more rapidly with 
continuous, concentrated effort.^' 

On March 28, 1941, he wrote, 

I am working along a little different line and have been doing so 
for the past two years, trying to broaden the previous approach and I 
think the work is now showing signs of something interesting. With a ^ 
year of steady work I am sure the results would warrant the experiment. 

These references to "a year of steady work" and "continuous, concentrated 

effort", express FitzGerald's sincere desire to take a leave of absence from 

teaching. In 1940, he had applied for a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. 



84 

He wrote, "My project is for a year of painting, free from the necessity of 

33 

worrying about a salary to keep things going." Unfortunately, he did not 

receive the Guggenheim fellowship, but this time for growth remained a dominant 

concern. He wrote, 
For some reason I feel the desire to do this now more than at any 

previous time. With all the experience of the past to back a new 
experiment and a very strong urge for the new adventure, it seems a 
shame the old and ancient obstacle money, should be there a g a i n . ^ 

Unfortunately, although FitzGerald desperately needed this time to explore 

and make further developments in his oil paintings, this was not to be made 

available to him until September of 1947. His friends, realizing his need, tried 

everything to obtain funds for his self-directed study. On February 8, 1946, Harry 

Adaskin wrote to Prime Minister King in an attempt to secure a pension for his 

talented friend. 

FitzGerald can paint only for a few weeks each summer because 
his duties as principal occupy all his time. He is in his fifties now, 
and he feels that he HAS something important to say, but can't say 
it because he cannot afford to retire for a few years to paint. 

A pension even for a few years, would pay high artistic dividends 
to Canada. What do you think, Mr. King? Is it possible?^ 

This plan, like all the rest, was doomed to failure. 

The result: the years 1941 - 1947 were lean years in terms of oil painting, 

and no major works were completed during this time. Knowing his time limitations 

and anxious to experiment he worked primarily in watercolours or in drawings, 

where results could be achieved quickly. On March 31, 1942, he wrote, 

I have managed to get in a lot of study in my own work during 
the winter so far. I am still on the large watercolour with anything 
as subject matter and finding out quite a lot that I hadn't experimented 
with before. How successful they are as pictures I have not been 



85 

worrying about but the solving of certain problems has been the main 
issue. And I think there has been some advance in that direction. The 
continued enthusiasm in the search intrigues me and this rather grows 
than diminishes.^6 

Like the period from 1932 - 1937, this period from 1941 - 1947 was a time of 

questioning, experimenting and storing up for the future. This active period 

resulted in the late forties and early fifties once again being a time of distinctive 

change in FitzGerald's means of expression. 



86 

CHAPTER VI 

F O O T N O T E S 

Brooker Papers, Letter from L.L. FitzGerald to Bertram Brooker, 
January 11, 1929. Letter was incorrectly dated, actual date was January 11, 
1930, and was written in response to Brooker's letter of December 26, 1929. 

2 | b i d . , April 8, 1931 . 

3 l b i d . , June 13, 1931. 
4 

Refer to compiled List of Dated Oils.(Appendix) 
5 

In 1929, FitzGerald was appointed as Principal of the Winnipeg School of 
Art. 

6 RobertAyre, "Painter of the Prairies, " Weekend Magazine, 8, 12 (1958), 
p. 29. 

7Sens Papers, L.L. FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, June 21, 1930. 

8 | b i d . , June 29, 1930. 

9 
FitzGerald Papers, Letter from Bertram Brooker to L.L. FitzGerald, 

March 26, 1931. 

^Dennis Reid, A Concise History of Canadian Painting (Toronto: Oxford 
University Press, 1973), p. 161. 

] 1 L . L . FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, June 7, 1930. 

12 
Dr. F. Eckhardt, Introduction, Memorial Exhibition Catalogue, Winnipeg 

Art Gallery, 1958), n.p. 
13 

L.L. FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, June 7, 1930. FitzGerald was not 
impressed by the large mural works of Goya (Sordlas), since the technique 
appeared to outweigh the importance of the subject. On June 23, 1930, 
FitzGerald wrote, 



87 

The smaller paintings by him (Goya), I have seen, are very much 
finer to my way of thinking but at that I am not a great admirer of his. 
I always find the technique is uppermost. 

1 4 | b i d . , June 7, 1930. 

15 
Helen M . Coy, L. LeMoine FitzGerald Exhibition (University of Manitoba, 

School of Art, 1977), p. 5 refers to a conversation, Helen Coy had with Robert 
Bruce, on October 4, 1976. 

^Brooker Papers, Letter from L.L. FitzGerald to Bertram Brooker, January 12, 
1933. ' 

* 7 | b i d . , December 4, 1937. 

18 
National Gallery Papers, Letter from L.L. FitzGerald to Harry McCurry, 

March 18, 1937. 
19 

Refer to Ann Davis, "A North American Artist, " L.L. FitzGerald 
Exhibition Catalogue (Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1978), pp. 42-44, for an excellent 
account of FitzGerald's relationship with the Group of Seven. FitzGerald was 
invited to join the Group of Seven in 1932. Davis asserts that the paintings by 
the Group of Seven had very little influence on FitzGerald's stylistic development. 
Davis wrote (p. 43), 

The artistic connection between FitzGerald and the Group was 
minimal. Only in FitzGerald's early works can one see any bold 
exuberance which characterized the Seven's approach, and in 
FitzGerald's case, these works were done when he was restricted to 
acquaintance through catalogue reproductions and the like. But they 
all shared an abiding belief in nature and a conviction that this 
subject was the most revealing, the most satisfying, the most demanding, 
20 

A Century of Canadian Art (London: Tate Gallery, 1938), cat. N o . 56, 
p. 14. 

21 
National Gallery Papers, Unsigned and unaddressed letter, May 4, 1938. 

There is no doubt that this letter was written by Harry McCurry to L.L. FitzGerald. 
2 2 L . L . FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, June 21, 1930. 

23 
Meyer Schapiro, Paul Cezanne (New York: Harry N . Abrams, Inc., n.d.), 

p. 90. 
24 

L. LeMoine FitzGerald Exhibition (University of Manitoba, School of Art, 
1977), pTT^ 



88 

25 
H. Arnason, History of Modern Art (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 

n.d.), p. 46. 

2 6 L . L . FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, June 7, 1930. 

2 7 ! b i d . 

28 
Ayre Papers, L.L. FitzGerald notes, n.p. 

29 
It is interesting to note that Cezanne in his Still Life (c. 1875) arrived 

at a very similar method of positioning two of his apples in this composition. 
30 

Refer to Chapter V for a discussion of Seurat's works and theories and their 
effect on FitzGerald's works. 

31 
National Gallery of Canada Papers, Letter from L.L. FitzGerald to 

Mr. H . O . McCurry, October 25, 1940. 
32 

Ibid., March 28, 1940 (sic) letter was misdated, 1941 was the actual 
date. 

Ibid., October 25, 1940. 

^ I b i d . , March 28, 1940 ( s i c \ 1941. 
35 

National Gallery of Canada Papers, Letter from Harry Adaskin to Prime  
Minister King, February 8, 1946. 

36 
Letter from L.L. FitzGerald to Mr. McCurry, March 31, 1942. 



89 

CHAPTER VII 
i 

TOWARDS ABSTRACTION (SEPTEMBER 1947 - AUGUST 1956) 

Ordinarily I would have gone to the school today for the opening 
of registration, with holidays officially over at midnight last night. 
Instead I did go to the school, at the same time as usual on any similar 
date in the. past years, but merely to introduce the acting principal to 
the staff and return home for a year. I will really only know just how 
I feel about the long time ahead after I have been working at the new 
job till, say the end of September. Then a long enough time will have 
elapsed so that I will fully realize the new situation. But I had a 
feeling, this morning, of release when I didn't feel the necessity to 
taking command and no need to plan how everything was to be arranged 
for the incoming students. (September 8, 1947) 1 

For the first time since FitzGerald began teaching in 1924, he was totally 

free to pursue his first love, painting. His wish had finally come true. Through 

Mrs. C . V . Ferguson, J . W . McConnell, of the Montreal Star, had given 

FitzGerald a year's salary so he could give up teaching and have an uninterrupted 
2 

period of painting. Writing to Mrs. Ferguson on September 8, 1947, FitzGerald 

describes his new long range program now that he had sufficient time to tackle his 

task. 
During the summer I have been definitely getting myself switched 

over to a new routine and it is now well imbedded in my habit centre. 
I am sure as I go on painting and drawing that more and more I will have 
a feeling of great satisfaction under the new programme. In the planning 
of my work during this past three months I have been working on a long 
range programme and have been doing things in a different way than if 
my time had been limited to the first week in September. I have been 
doing drawings in black wash in the mornings and watercolours in the 
afternoons for the past two months outside, with exception of the rainy 
days when I did some quick drawings in black chalk in the house. I expect 



90 

to continue this plan until the weather breaks and it is definitely too 
cold for regular outside work except on the occasional warm day. 
Then I will be working inside. Just at the moment I am thinking of 
part of the time devoted to painting in oils which will ultimately 
develop into some larger canvases. I already have a few good subjects 
in mind when the snow arrives, with some smaller things in the meantime 
to get my hand into the use of the medium.^ 

The fruits of FitzGerald's new program are found in his large major o i l , 

From An Upstairs Window, Winter of 1948 (Slide 15). This exquisite painting is 

a mature summation of FitzGerald's works of the early (1931) and late (1938 -

1940) thirties. He has brought the landscape typical of Doc Snider's House and 

has ingeniously combined it with his appreciation of common still life forms. 

This painting bears many similarities with his Doc Snider's House of 1931 . He 

retains the lighting found in Doc Snider's House and has even increased its static 

quality and sense of timelessness by minimizing suggestions of light and shadows. 

A sketch for From An Upstairs Window, Winter of 1948 (National Gallery 

of Canada (Slide 14) provides a more natural view of the scene FitzGerald 

actually saw while looking out his window. Comparing the sketch with the 

finished oil reveals FitzGerald's strong formal concerns. Reminiscent of Jar, 

FitzGerald has moved the white pitcher further along the window sill to achieve 

the desired outlining the window frame provides. He also has adjusted the 

position of the pencil and the tree for compositional purposes. One even finds 

satisfying correspondences in the shapes of the forms themselves. In the o i l , 

FitzGerald adds a large window-less house to the right middleground. This 

large undefined surface acts to hold and redirect the viewer's attention to the 

foreground. Between the houses there is a small visual escape into the distance. 

The finished work is personalized by the inclusion of FitzGerald's initials on 



91 

the back of his chair, seen in the extreme right corner. This comparison of the 

sketch with the finished oil shows that FitzGerald added and rearranged the 

elements of the composition, yet in the interest of unity kept them subordinate 

to the whole. 

In From An Upstairs Window, Winter, FitzGerald returns to the smooth 

sculptural modelling of forms seen in Doc Snider's House and his other works of the 

early thirties, but the clarity has been reduced to a small degree. This is due to 

two reasons. First, through the choice of uniformly toned muted colours (gone 

is the rainbow-coloured snow of Doc Snider's House) and second, through the 

reintroduction (as in Jar) of the stipple or ridge technique which tends to soften, 

and haze the contours. In From An Upstairs Window, Winter (like his still lifes 

of the late thirties) his concerns are all but exclusively formal ones. Thus in this 

way these works are more related to abstraction than to realistic portrayal. For 

although they contain a high degree of verisimilitude; realism was certainly not 

the primary aim. It was thus only one short step to pure abstraction. 

The first abstract oil that FitzGerald executed was entitled Composition 

N o . I (1950-51) (Slide 17) and was painted upon the request of Dr. E.J. Thomas. 

FitzGerald had been encouraged directly and indirectly by many of his friends 

towards abstraction. His close friend Bertram Brooker had been painting abstracts 
4 

since the 1920's. After Brooker's visit to FitzGerald in the summer of 1929, he 

wrote, on January 11, 1930, referring to their long talks on art, of the previous 

summer. 
I fear your conversation had a very definite effect on Edward. 

His Christmas card was a very abstract thing cut in linoleum. This 
' outlook seems to have appealed to him very much. One never knows 

what children are absorbing and storing up for the future.^ 



FitzGerald, too, had been storing up for the future. However, it was not until 

the 1950's that he had gathered, seen and digested enough abstract art, and had 

himself done a few experimental abstract drawings, that he decided to attempt 

his first o i l . FitzGerald must have been satisfied with his results because this 

marked the beginning of a number of abstract compositions in o i l . 

"During his trips to British Columbia in the 1940's, he had become more 

acutely aware of the abstract works of Lawren Harris. On August 29, 1948, in a 

letter to Robert Ayre, FitzGerald expresses his admiration for the latest abstracts. 

Lawren is doing some new abstracts, which seem to me to be quite 
a development since I saw him in 1944. They have to my mind, a greater 
depth, finer colour relations and a greater sense of realization. They 
seem to be occupied with more design and colour. 0 

Through his friends, his readings on art, and his 1930 trip to the Eastern States, 

FitzGerald had been exposed to a considerable amount of abstract art. The style 

he evolved although entirely his own, was a composite of the wealth of his 

experiences over the last forty years. 

Composition N o . I provides some interesting comparisons with Brooker's 

Sound Assembling of 1928, which FitzGerald admired and had procured for the 

Winnipeg Art Gallery. While both works are geometrical abstraction, FitzGerald 

painting is not that far removed from his earlier representational works. Unlike 

Brooker's painting, FitzGerald's colours are subtle, soft muted greys, browns and 

blues with the occasional stronger accents. Whereas space and perspective play 

an important role in Brooker's work. FitzGerald has further compressed the space 

evident in Jar, to the point where all the forms are virtually two-dimensional. 

Depth in the canvas is only suggested by overlapping and subtle modulations in 



93 

colouring. FitzGerald has retained the clarity of contour of his works of the 

early 30's, yet this appears to be somewhat at the expense of the unity of the 

composition. 

By 1954, after considerable experimentation, FitzGerald achieved a more 

harmonious and satisfying abstract composition entitled Abstract: Green and Gold 

(Slide 18). He first executed a study for this composition in watercolour and then 

painted the finished composition in o i l . This work can be seen as the culmination 

of FitzGerald's searching and experimenting with abstraction in the early 1950's. 

In a letter to Robert Ayre, dated December 18, 1952, FitzGerald discusses his 

new abstract approach, 

Have been experimenting pretty steadily, with a sort of abstract 
approach. I wanted to find out more about colour and composition 
and thought a good change from the objects would be a refreshing 
thing and perhaps open a new field. Have done endless drawings in 
black and white as well as colour and carried a few of these into 
large spaces in o i l . Will be interesting to see what will happen in 
the future.^ 

Abstract: Green and Gold is a delicate blending of forms. These forms, 

primarily elliptical are gently intertwined, becoming a harmonious whole, and 

their colours are as subtle as their shapes. Although the painting does not appear 

to be based on any representational subject, the choice of forms and their 

harmonious arrangement suggest affinities with his still life painting. Like many 

of FitzGerald's paintings, there is very little recession of space in this work, 

enabling the viewer to concentrate more intensely on the forms. Thus his abstract 

works came as a natural summation of his previous artistic developments in painting. 

The fifties were not solely a time of abstract painting, FitzGerald continued 

to paint still lifes using a similar style to the one he had first developed in the 



94 

thirties. The last major oil painting he completed was Hat of 1955 (Slide 20). 

This work is not important in terms of FitzGerald's stylistic development, but 
g 

rather as a final major statement made by the artist. Of all of FitzGerald's 

works, this painting lends itself most readily to interpretation. 

In his Diary on October 25, 1955, FitzGerald wrote, "Finished painting 

"Hat" still life, painting signature and touching up unfinished little bit — going 
9 

to Montreal for Canadian Painters Show." Two weeks later, on November 8, 

1955, the Hat was packaged ready for shipping to Montreal. FitzGerald 

records, " 'The Hat' 24" x 30" oil goes to Montreal for Group Show at Museum 

of Fine A r t s . " ' ^ On December 5, 1955, FitzGerald, disappointed that the oil 

painting was not seen at the Group Show, wrote, 
. . . got notice from Montreal " O l d Hat" painting not accepted 
for Canadian Group Painters show — Teddy [Dr. Ted Thomas?] 
had bought it before it left for the East — too b a d . 1 1 

It was only on July 23, 1953, after a lapse of twenty-three years, that 

FitzGerald had begun once again to write in his Diary. At this time, he wrote 

a chronology of important events starting with his trip East in 1930. This brief 

chronology reads, "1938 trip to Ottawa; 1947-48 leave of absence; 1948-49 

trip to West Vancouver; January 1949 resignation from the School; 1950 spring 
12 

flood and, 1951 trip to Mexico." Records concerning Hat and Bertram 
13 

Brooker's death on March 21 were hisonly entries of 1955. His later dated 

entries were sporadic. 

Why FitzGerald began writing again after so many years is a mystery. 

Perhaps he realized that his life was reaching an end. He may have wished to 

somehow sum up and grasp his experience; laying out his own chronology, may 



95 

have seemed to be one means of doing this. It would also seem from his Diary 

that the Hat, his last major oil perhaps also was intended as a kind of personal 

summation, almost a self portrait. FitzGerald began working on the subject in 

August of 1955, and is known to have executed at least one preparatory drawing. 

This very detailed drawing (Slide 19), dated August 18, 1955, was executed in 

15 

pen and ink on paper and reveals an underlying pencil grid. The finished oil 

matches this drawing almost perfectly. The only minor difference is that the book 

in the completed oil is somewhat closer to the centre and tilted slightly to the 

left. The painting is believed to have been started on August 23, 1955.'^ 

The main subject of the work as its title implies is the hat. The "old hat" 

belonged to FitzGerald. It shared with him many memories of painting trips out 

into the prairie countryside. Miss Lynn Sissons, a former student of FitzGerald 

remembers how he would usually wear his old felt hat and casual tweed jacket 

when taking a group of students on a sketching field trip. As Miss Lynn Sissons 

so aptly put ir, "Through his years of wearing it, the hat had taken on something 

of h i m s e l f . " ' 7 This gives this painting its intimate and poignant quality. 

The painting also includes other possessions of the artist. In the foreground 

there is a spread newspaper with an open book lying on top of it. The background 

also depicts three closed books, shelved in a row. All his life FitzGerald had been 

an avid reader, these references to books and printed matter, probably reflect 

FitzGerald's love of reading and the means through which he gained most of his 

information about the world of art. A closer examination of the open book reveals 

a simplified geometrical hourglass shape on the pages. This perhaps alludes to the 

fact, that FitzGerald's art often used geometry (e.g., use of grids), and that he 



96 

had learned these principles through books. Or it may reveal the artist's 

knowledge that time was running out. His friends, Bertram and Rill Brooker, had 

died during the last year and probably this had increased FitzGerald's awareness 

of his own approaching death. 

The remaining two objects in the painting were the apple and bottle that 

FitzGerald depicted over and over again in his paintings. The apple with its 

round shape, and the bottle with its reflections had always presented challenges 

to the artist; it was now that he painted them for the last time. Is there an 

underlying meaning to this work? If so, it remains a mystery. But certainly an 

interpretation is tempting. In this connection a very revealing statement is found 

in FitzGerald's Diary, 

Art is a human activity, consisting in this, that one man consciously . 
by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feeling he has lived 
through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also 
experience them.'^ 

FitzGerald may have felt that this painting expressed the summation of his feelings 

and the experience that he had lived through and wished other people to share in 

his experiences. Early Sunday morning, on August 5, 1956, FitzGerald died of 

a heart failure. 

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald was an artist who had over the years "taken the 

19 

time to penetrate a litfle deeper into the meaning of things." His search was 

a never ending one, that began in his childhood and only ended with his death. 

During this time he had experimented with different means of expression, different 

styles and techniques, sometimes returning and reworking a technique he had used 

years before. But there are certain qualities found in all his works, which are 



97 

totally independent from his changing technique. These essential characteristics 

are simplicity, clarity, harmonious colour, and a sense of order, all of which 

tend to induce a feeling of quiet reverence in the viewer. The art of FitzGerald 

"Painter of the Prairies", due to the depth of his vision, possessed a universality 

that held meaning for those beyond his own native region. 



98 

CHAPTER VII 

F O O T N O T E S 

^National Gallery of Canada Papers, Letter from L.L. FitzGerald to Mrs. 
Ferguson, September 8, 1947. 

2 
National Gallery of Canada Papers, Letter from J.W. McConnell to Mary  

Ferguson, September 25, 1947. See also L.L. FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, 
Chronology 1947 - 1948. 

3 
Letter from L.L. FitzGerald to Mrs. Ferguson, September 8, 1947. 

4 
Dennis Reid, A Concise History of Canadian Painting (Toronto: Oxford 

University Press, 1973), p. 182. 
5 

Brooker Papers, Letter from L.L. FitzGerald to Bertram Brooker, January 11, 
1929 (sic) 1930. 

^Robert Ayre Papers, Letter from L.L. FitzGerald to Robert Ayre, August 29, 
1948. 

7 l b l d . 
g 
Ayre Papers, Letter from Dr. Ted Thomas to Robert Ayre, May 24, 1972. 

9 
L.L. FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, October 25, 1955. 

1 0 1 b i d . , November 8, 1955. 

^ ^ Ibid., December 5, 1955. 

12 
lbid.> Chronology. 

1 3 l b i d . , March 21, 1955. 

14 . 
FitzGerald only made three entries in 1956, one on July 20, describing 

his recent visit to the Gallery to see the Picasso etchings, drypoints and lithographs, 
one on July 21, recording Rill Brooker's (Bertram Brooker's wife) death and his last 
entry on August 3, 1956, two days before his own death. 



99 

Finished building front steps - painting to do now - Geraldine 
and Earl came for dinner til eleven - rainy, cool day - been cool most 
of summer - flowers in box on balcony very beautiful. 

1 5 Refer to Pen Drawing: Hat, Art Gallery of Ontario (A60 70/50). 

'^Karen Sens in conversation with Dr. Alcock August 3, 1957. Dr. Alcock, 
a friend of FitzGerald, has kept files on the artist. In his files he noted that this 
work was started on August 23, 1955. 

17 
Karen Sens in conversation with Miss Lynn Sissons, August 10, 1975. 

18 
L.L. FitzGerald, 1930, Diary, March 3, 1927 (Notes on Russian Art). 

19 
Ayre Papers, Unpublished Notes; Memorial Catalogue, n.p. 



100 

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Studio, 54 (November, 1914), 3-11. 

. "Modern French Pictures at the National Gallery." The International 
"Studio, 63 (November 1917 - February 1918), 53-57. 

Zemans, Joyce. "Reviews and Notes." Artscanada, 30, 2 (May 1973), 77. 



EXHIBITION CATALOGUES 

Bovey, Patricia. L.L. FitzGerald & Bertram Brooker/Their Drawings. Winnipeg: 
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1975. 

Bovey, Patricia and Davis, Ann. Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, The Development  
of an Artist. V/innipeg: The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1978. 

Brown, Milton. Armory Show, Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition Catalogue. New 
York: 1963. 

Canadian Art of Today Exhibition Catalogue. Winnipeg: The Winnipeg 
Art Gallery, 1921. 

Coy, Helen. L. LeMoine FitzGerald Exhibition. Winnipeg: Gallery III, 1977. 

The Development of Painting in Canada 1665 - 1945. Toronto: Art 
* Gallery of Toronto, 1945. 

Eckhardt, Ferdinand. A New FitzGerald. Winnipeg: The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 
1963. 

150 Years of Art in Manitoba/Struggle for a Visual Civilization. 
Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1970. 

First Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Painting. Ottawa: The National 
Gallery of Canada, 1955. 

Hill, Charles C . Canadian Painting in the Thirties. Ottawa: The National 
Gallery of Canada, 1975. 

Hubbard, R.H. Canadian Landscape Painting 1670 - 1930. Madison: Elvejohn 
Art Centre, 1973. 

• . Vincent Massey Bequest/The Canadian Paintings. Ottawa: The 
National Gallery of Canada, 1968. 

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald/A Memorial Exhibition. Winnipeg: The 
Winnipeg Art Gailery, 1959. 

L.L. FitzGerald (1890 - 1956)/Drowings and Watercolours from the  
Winnipeg Art Gallery. St. John: New Brunswick Museum and 
Charlotrerown, Confederation Art Gallery and Museum, 1966. 

Lord, Barry. Painting in Canada. Ottawa: Queen's Printer, 1967. 



107 

Jarvis, Alan, foreword, and Ferdinand Eckhardt, intro. FitzGerald - Memorial  
Exhibition. Ottawa: The National Gallery of Canada, in collaboration 
with the Winnipeg Art Gallery. 

Memorial Room for LeMoine FitzGerald. Winnipeg: The Winnipeg Art 
Gallery, 1957. 

Murray, Joan. Impressionism in Canada 1895 - 1935. Toronto: Art Gallery of 
Ontario, 1974. 

Williamson, Moncrieff. Through Canadian Eyes/Trends and Influences in Canadian 
• Art 1815 - 1965. Calgary: Glenbow-Alberta Institute, 1976. 

UNPUBLISHED SOURCES 

Amundson, Dale, Lionel Le Moine FitzGerald. Unpublished B.F.A. thesis, 
University of Manitoba, 1963. 

Art Students' League Account Files. Account N o . 3413, Register N o . 1412. 
Winnipeg Art Gallery Files. 

Ayre Papers. Ayre, Robert. Unpublished articles and notes. Queens University 
Archives. 

FitzGerald, L.L. Diary, 1930, 1953 - 1956. Xeroxed by Karen L. Sens; with 
the permission of Mrs. Pat Morrison, FitzGerald's daughter. 

FitzGerald, L.L. "Painter of the Prairies," C . B . C . Wednesday Night Talk. 
December 1, 1954. Typescript. Dr. E.J. Thomas Papers, Winnipeg. 

Hoogstraten, Mrs. Vinia. Morning Comment Broadcast. November 18, 1959. 
9:45 - 9:55 a.m. on C . S . T . FitzGerald Study Centre Files, University 
of Manitoba. 

Winnipeg School of Art, Prospectus. 1917 - 1948. 

UNPUBLISHED LETTERS 
Copies of the following letters can be obtained from: 

THE FITZGERALD STUDY CENTRE 

Arthur Lismer to Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald. 
October 19, 1930; October 31, 1930; December 24, 1930; May 24, 
1932; June 17, 1932; undated; September 12, 1936; April 15, 1940; 
February 15, 1940. 



108 

J . E . H . MacDonald to Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald. 
February 10, 1928; April 8, 1931; October 14, 1931; August 19, 1932. 

Lawren Harris to Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald. 
undated; December 10, 1929; December 29, 1929; January 9, 1929; 
October 10, 1931; October 11, 1933; December 21, 1942; January 26, 
1943; February 21, 1943; August 21, 1943; October 10, 1943; 
February 6, 1944; March 18, 1945; May 21, 1945. 

N A T I O N A L GALLERY OF C A N A D A ARCHIVAL FILES 

Bertram Brooker to Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald. 
December 28, 1929; October 17, 1930; March 26, 1931; August 6, 
1931; November 27, 1931; January 10, 1932; March 20, 1933; 
September 1, 1933; March 15, 1934; fall 1934; February 5, 1935; 
April (?), 1935; May 9, 1935; May 17, 1935; May 23, 1935; June 6, 
1935; June 30, 1936; September 22, 1936; February 25, 1937; 

. November 16, 1937; March 14, 1938; November 1, 1938; March 21, 
1939; May 16, 1939; June 25, 1942; July 27, 1945; September 20, 
1945; October 5, 1945?; November 27, 1945; December 27, 1945. 

Brooker's Papers - Lionel Le Moine FitzGerald to Bertram Brooker. 
January 11, 1930; April 18, 1931; June 13, 1931; December 21, 1931; 
January 12, 1933; November 6, 1933; January 20, 1935; May 7, 1935; 
May 10, 1935; June 17, 1935; December 4, 1937. 

Mr. J . W . McConnell to Mary Ferguson. 
September 25, 1947. 

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald to Mr. McFaddin. 
October 1, 1951. 

Alan Jarvis to Mrs. FitzGerald. 
August 29, 1956. 

Q U E E N ' S UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES 

(ROBERT AYRE PAPERS) 

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald to Robert Ayre. 
March 8, 1934; January 9, 1939; February 3, 1942; January 31, 1945; 
June 11, 1945; January 29, 1945 (postmarked); August 22, 1947; 
August 29, 1948; July 25, 1949; January 8, 1950; undated c. 1950; 
December 18, 1952; August 27, 1954. 



109 

Robert Ayre to Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald. 
January 7, 1942; April 30, 1945?; Hallowe'en, 1945; February 12, 
1947; April 3, 1947; February 13, 1948; April 19, 1948; October 14, 
1948; June 10, 1949; November 22, 1949; May 27, 1950. 

Patricia Morrison to Robert Ayre. 
September 5, 1956. 

Arnold Brigden to Robert Ayre. 
April 2, 1957. 

Florence Brigden to Robert Ayre. 
January 7, 1957. 

Mr. Harry McCurry to Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald. 
May 4, 1938; October 25, 1940; October 29, 1940; August 21, 1951. 

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald to Mr. Harry McCurry. 
July 6, 1932; March 18, 1937; October 16, 1939; March 28, 1940; 
March 31, 1942; June 16, 1945; June 27, 1945; July 24, 1945; 
August 6, 1945; October 25, 1948; June 7, 1949; February 10, 1950; 
August 18, 1951. 

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald to Gertrude. 
July 21, 1949. 

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald to Miss Fenwick. 
September 13, 19441 

Miss Fenwick to Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald. 
October 29, 1948. 

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald to Lawren Harris. 
May 23, 1945. 

Lawren Harris to Donald Buchanan (Includes article entitled "Recent Work of 
LeMoine FitzGerald.") 
May 27, 1945. 

Mr. Harry McCurry to Lawren Harris. 
June 20, 1945. 

Harry Adaskin to Prime Minister King. 
February 8, 1946. 

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald to Mrs. Mary Ferguson. 
September 8, 1947. 



n o 

Robert Ayre to Florence Brigden. 
January 18, 1957. 

Mr. Hugh Morrison to Robert Ayre. 
December 6, 1968; March 17, 1969. 

Robert Ayre to Mr. Hugh Morrison. 
December 31, 1968; May 8, 1969. 

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES 

In the collection of Karen L. Sens: 

A great number of newspaper clippings dating from 1923 to 1978, 
primarily from The Winnipeg Tribune, and The Winnipeg Free Press, 
but also includes articles from: Saturday Night, The Province, B.C. 

. Herald, Vernon News, Montreal Gazette, Le Droit, Montreal Star, 
Toronto Globe and Mail, St. James, Manitoba Leader, Ottawa 
Citizen, Ottawa Journal, Quebec Chronicle Telegraph, Windsor Daily 
Star, Detroit News, London Evening Free Press, et cetera. 



I l l 

APPENDIX 

LIST OF FITZGERALD'S DATED OIL PAINTINGS 

(compiled by author) 

Date 

1911 

Title 

Woodland 

Medium 

O H 

Dimensions 

8" x 10-1/2' 

Location: unknown 
no reproduction available 
(n.r.a.) 

Source: Morris Gallery Exhibition 

1912 Lockport 

Location: 

oil on 25.2 x 20.0 cm 
cardboard 

Winnipeg Art Gallery 
( W . A . G . ) G70-186 

1912 

Additional Information: 
signed and dated (s.d.) on 
reverse upper corner (u.c.) 

Trees 

Location: W . A . G . G70-195 

oil on 
canvas 

31.0 x 45.7 cm 

Additional Information: 
s.d. on reverse 
upper right (u.r.) 



112 

Date Title Medium Dimensions 

1913 River oil on 
canvas 

Location: W . A . G . G70-169 

Additional Information: 
signed bottom left (s.b.l.) 
below: d . on reverse u . c : 
June 13 

1913 Kildonan on 

Location: unknown 
n.r.a. 

24.5 x 32.1 cm 

9-1/4"x 10-1/2' 

Source: Morris Gallery Exhibition 

1914 Untitled (Manitoba Winter) oil 6-1/2" x 8-1/2' 

Location: Private Collection, 
Winnipeg 

1917 Late Fall, Manitoba oil on 
canvas 

Location: National Gallery of 
Canada Collection ( N . G . C . ) 
N . G . C . 1438 

30" x 36" 

1917 Sketch for Panel over Fireplace 

Location: Tom Thompson Gallery 

oil on 20" x 24" 
canvas 

1918 Assiniboine River from Maryland 
Bridge 

Location: Agnes Etherington Art 
Centre Collection 

oil on 17-5/8" x 23-5/8" 
canvas 

Additional Information: 
not signed (n.s.) 



Title Medium Dimensions 

Cottage 

Location: unknown 

oil 

n.r.a. 

Source: Morris Gallery Exhibition 

Head of Sleeping Boy 

Location: W . A . G . G64-26 

Additional Information: 
s.d. on back 

Mrs. Wheaton 

Location: W . A . G . G70-31 

oil on 
canvas 

Additional Information: 
d. on reverse top right (t.r.) 

The Bridge oil 

Location: unknown 
n.r.a. 

Source: Morris Gallery Exhibition 

7 - 1 / 4 " x 9 " 

6-1/2" "x 8-7/8" 

63.0 x 45.0 cm 

7-1/4"x 9" 

River Landscape 

Location: unknown 
n.r.a. 

Source: Morris Gallery Exhibition 

oi il 6-3/4"x 9" 

The Prairie 
(Snowflake, Manitoba 
done for Geraldine) 

oil c. 11" x 14" 

Location: Private Collection, Winnipeg 



114 

Date Title Medium Dimensions 

1920 Summer, East Kildonan 

Location: Private Collection, 
Winnipeg 

Source: Winnipeg Art Gallery 
(slide collection) 

Additional Information: 
s.d. bottom left (b.l.) 

oil on 
canvas 

127.0 x 106.7 cm 

1920 Winter Landscape 
(Garden) 

oil on 
canvas 

33" x 35' 

Location: M r . & M r s . John MacAulay 

Source: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald 
Memorial Exhibition 
Catalogue, 1958 

Additional Information: 
s . d . lower right (I .r.) 

1920 Yellow Tree oil on 
canvas 

Location: Gallery of Hamilton 

Additional Information: 
dated in pencil off painted 
surface top left (t.L) 
September 17, 1920 

1920 Park 

Location: W . A . G . G70-167 

21-3/4" x 23-1/2' 

oil on 19.1 x 24.1 cm 
masonite 

Additional Information: 
d. on reverse u.r.:25.00 
May 16. 20 



115 

Date Title 

1920 Ponemah 

Medium Dimensions 

oil on 
canvas 

Location: W . A . G . G70-151 

Additional Information: 
s.b .1. 
d . on reverse b . l . 

1920 East Kildonan oil on 
canvas 

Location: W . A . G . G70-40 

Additional Information: 
s.b.I.: off composition (comp.) 
Sep 18 

1920 East Kildonan 

Location: W . A . G . G70-44 

Additional Information: 
u.r. off comp.: Sep. 17 

1920 East Kildonan 

Location: W . A . G . G70-56 

Additional Information: 
d . l . l . 

1920 East Kildonan 

Location: W . A . G . G70-182 

1920 East Kildonan 

Location: W . A . G . G70-190 

oil on 
canvas 

oil on 
canvas 

oil on 
canvas 

32.5 x 4 0 . 5 cm 

22" x 23-3/8" 

17-5/8" x 19-1/2' 

39.7 x 25.2 cm 

35.7 x 40.3 cm 

Additional Information: 
s.b.I. 



116 

Date Title 

1920 East Kildonan 

Location: W . A . G . G70-191 

Additional Information: 
s . d . l . r . 

1920 East Kildonan 

Location: W . A . G . G70-]92 

Mediu m 

oil on 
canvas 

Dimensions 

35.9 x 4 2 . 6 cm 

oil on 
canvas 

1920 

1920 

E ^ i J S i l d o n ^ y ^ 

Location: W . A . G . G70-194 

Additional Information: 
s.d. on reverse: Sept. i i 

East Kildonan 

Location: W . A . G . C70-39 

Additional Information: 
s.b.r.: d . b . c . off comp. 

Standing Nude 

Location: W . A . G . G70-U7 

Additional Information: 
s.d.u.r. 

1920 Broken Tree, Kildonan Park 

Location: Private Collection 

Additional Information: 
s.d.b.r. 

oil on 
canvas 

oil on 
canvas 

1920 
oil on 
canvas 

34.0 x 40.0 cm 

35.3 x 39.4 cm 

69.5 x 64.0 cm 

56.8 x 39.2 cm 

oil on 
canvas 

83.8 x 88.9 cm 



117 

Date Title 

1920 Ponemah 

Location: W . A . G . G70-189 

Additional Information: 
s.d. on reverse u . l . 

Medium Dimensions 

oil on 
canvas 

40.6 x 34 cm 

192.1 Summer Afternoon 
The Prairie 
(also referred to as 
Prairie Landscape (Summer) ) 

Location: W . A . G . L-90 

Source: W . A . G . list (Lily Hobbs), 
Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald 
Memorial Travelling 
Exhibition Catalogue 
1959-60 

Additional Information: 
s.d.b.r. 

oil on 
canvas 

4 2 " x 35' 

1921 Prairie Sky oil 

Location: n.r.a. 

Source: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald 
Travelling Memorial 
Exhibition Catalogue 
1959-60 

not stated 

1921 Assiniboine River 

Location: W . A . G . 

oil on 9-3/4" x 11-7/8' 
plywood 

Provenance: donated by Mrs. Philip Chester 

Additional Information: 
s . d . b . l . 



118 

Date 

1921 

Title 

Path 

Location: 

Source: 

Medium 

>il 

Dimensions 

7_l/4" x 8-1/4" 

unknown 
n.r.a. 

Morris Gallery Exhibition 
Catalogue, Feb. 1973 

1921 

1921 

Palisades, Hudson River 
(also referred to as Hudson River) 

Location: W . A . G . G73-328 

Provenance: M r . & M r s . A . O . Brigden 

Source: Amundson's thesis contains 
a small black and white 
contact print of this work. 

Additional Information: 
s.b.I. 

C h a l e m j j £ u n e r ^ 
From Parliament Hill 

Location: W . A . G . G70-185 

Ion 19-3/4" x 16" 
oi 
canvas 

oil on 
canvas 

1 9 2 2 Max's Studio On 9th St.  
Near 6th, New York 

Location: W . A . G . G70-143 

1 9 2 2 Nude With Red Hair 

Location: W . A . G . G70-35 

oil on 
canvas 

25.4 x 30.5 cm 

25.1 x 30.2 cm 

oil and 6 6 . 3 x 5 1 . 0 cm 
charcoal 
on canvas 

Additional Information: 
d across bottom under comp.. 
New York, 1922/Miller's 
class? 



119 

Date 

1922 

1922 

1922 

Title Medium Dimensions 

Riviere des Prairies, P . Q . 

Location: N . G . C . 16, 532 

Additional Information: 
d . and titled, b.r.: 
June 1922 

Seated Nude 

Location: W . A . G . G70-36 

Additional Information: 
s . d . b . l . comp.: New York 

Landscape 

Location: W . A . G . G70-144 

oil on 
canvas 

oil on 
canvas 

on on 
canvas 

18" x 20" 

65.5 x 50.0 cm 

22.1 x 32.2 cm 

Additional Information: 
d . l . r . : also indistinguishable 
marks 

1922 Seated Nude 

Location: W . A . G . G70-29 

Additional Information: 
s . d . b . l . : New York 

oil on 
canvas 

57 x 47.5 cm 

1922 Spring Farmyard 

Location: W . A . G . G70-176 

oil on 
canvas 

30.5 x 25.1 cm 

Additional Information: 
d . on reverse c . : N . Y . 



Date Title 

1923 Oakdale Place oil on 
canvas 

Location: W . A . G . G70-58 

Additional Information: 
d . b . l . off comp. 

1923 Pembina Valley oil on 
canvas 

Location: Dr. &Mrs. C D . Lees, 
Winnipeg 

Source: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald 
Memorial Exhibition 
Catalogue 1958 

Additional Information: 
s . d . b . l . 

1923 Country Road 

Location: Gallery of Hamilton 
Collection 

Additional Information: 
d.l .r. 

oil on 
canvas 

120 

Medium Dimensions 

44.0 x 54.5 cm 

18" x 2 2 " 

11-7/8" x 1 5 " 

1923 River Bank, Maryland Bridge 

Location: Agnes Etherington Art 
Centre 

Additional Information: 
n.s. 

oil on 
canvas 

17" x 20' 

1924 Landscape With Fir Tree 

Location: W . A . G . G70-202 

oil on 
canvas 

28.9 x 32.7 cm 

Additional Information: 
d. on reverse b. I. 



121 

Date Title 

1924 Still Life with Jars 

Medium Dimensions 

Location: Art Gallery of Ontario 
Collection 

1924 Assiniboine. at Park 

Location: Mr. & M r s . S.J. Drache, 
Winnipeg, owners 

Additional Information: 
Endorsed by Mrs. Felicia 
FitzGerald as a work of 
her husband. 

oil on 
canvas 

oil on 30-1/8" x 24' 
canvas 

15-1/2" x 17-3/4" 

c. 1924 Farmhouse Interior - Snowflake, 
Manitoba 

oil on 
canvas 

61.0 x 51.0 cm 

Location: W . A . G . G75-16 

1925 Potato Patch, Snowflake 

Location: Private Collection 

oil on 
canvas 
on board 

43.3 x 51.2 cm 

Additional Information: 
s.d.b.r. 

1925 River Scene oil 7" x 9 " 

Location: unknown 
n.r.a. 

Source: Morris Gallery Exhibition 
Catalogue Feb. 1973 

1926 Harvest 

Location: W . A . G . G70-166 

oil on 
canvas 

29.5 x 38.0 cm 

Additional Information: 
s.d.b.r. 



Date Title 

1926 Trees and Window 

Medium 

oil on 
canvas 

Location: Mr. &Mrs. A . O . Brigden, 
owners 

Source: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald 
Memorial Exhibition 
Catalogue 1958 

Additional Information: 
s.d.b.r. 

122 

Dimensions 

20" x 17-1/2" 

1927 Untitled (Winter Oakdale Place) 

Location: Private Collection, 
Winnipeg 

Additional Information: 
initialled & dated 
L . L . F 2 7 / 

on 

1927 Williamson's Garage 

Location: Collection: N . G . C . 3682 

Additional Information: 
s . d . b . l . 

oil on 
canvas 

2 2 " x 18" 

1927 Portrait of C . K . Gebhardt 

Location: W . A . G . G69-96 

Additional Information: 
s.d. back: c. 1927 

oil on 
canvas 

not given 

1928 Hislop's Barn oil on 
canvas 

Location: Collection: Norman 
MacKenzie Art Gallery, 
University of Regina 

14" x 17-3/4" 



123 

Date 

1929 

Title 

c. 1928 Pritchard's Fence 

Medium 

oil on 
canvas 

Location: Collection: Art Gallery 
of Ontario ( A . G . O . ) 

Additional Information: 
s.d-.b.r. 192(8) 

1929 . Untitled (Prairie Farm) 

Location: Dr. &Mrs. E.J. Thomas 

Poplar Woods 

Location: W . A . G . G75-66 

Provenance: C . C . Sinclair 

Source: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald 
Memorial Exhibition 
Catalogue 1958 

Additional Information: 
s.d.b.r. 

oil on 
canvas 

1929 Portrait of Artist's Daughter 
Patricia FitzGerald, aged 10 

o i l 

Location: Estate of Mrs. Pat Morrison 

1929 The Red Tower oil on 
board 

Location: Dr. & Mrs.. J . J . Lander 

Dimensions 

28-3/16"x 30-1/8' 

oil on c. 10" x 12-1/2" 
canvas 

28" x 36' 

13" x 15-5/8" 

1 1 " x 12-3/4' 

1929 The Prairie 

Location: W . A . G . G73-332 

Provenance: Arnold O. Brigden 

Additional Information: s.d.b.l 

oil on 
canvas 

28.5 x 33.5 cm 



124 

Date Title Medium Dimensions 

1930 Stooks and Trees 

Location: W . A . G . G75-13 

Provenance: Mr. &Mrs. A . O . Brigden 

Source: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald 
Memorial Exhibition 
Catalogue 1958 

Additional Information: 
s.b.r. 

oil on 11-1/2" x 15" 
canvas 
on board 

1930 Untitled (Tree Trunks) 

Location: N . G . C . 16366 

Additional Information: 
b . l . 30 

on on 
canvas 

11-5/8" x 14-1/4' 

.1931 Broken Tree in Landscape 
(also referred to as Dead Tree) 

Location: W . A . G . G56-29 

Additional Information: 
s.d.b.I. 

oil on 
canvas 

14" x 16-7/8' 

1931 Farm Yard 

Location: N . A . G . 15474 

Provenance: Bequest of Honorable 
Vincent Massey 1968 

Source: Charles Hill, Canadian 
Painting in the Thirties, p.81 

Additional Information: 
s.d.1.1. 

oil on 
canvas on 
board 

13-3/4" x 16-3/4' 



125 

Date Title Medium Dimensions 

1931 Prairie Farm 

Location: Private Collection, 
Toronto 

Source: C . Hill, Canadian 
Painting In the Thirties, 
p. 81, 172 

Additional Information: 
s.d.b.r. 

oil on 
canvas 
on panel 

14" x 17' 

1931 

1931 

Prairie Farm oil on 
canvas 

Location: Mr. R. Riley, Winnipeg on panel 

Source: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald 
Memorial Exhibition 
Catalogue 1958 

Additional Information: 
s.d.b.r. 

Summer 

Location: Hart House, University 
of Toronto 

Additional Information: 
s . d . b . l . 

oil on 
canvas 

1 4 " x 17" 

13-1/2" x 16-3/4' 

1931 Assiniboine River 

Location: W . A . G . G73-326 

oil on 
canvas 
on board 

14" x 17' 

Provenance: Mr. &Mrs. Arnold O.Brigden 

Source: W . A . G . List (Lily Hobbs) 

Additional Information: 
s . d . b . l . 



126 

Date Title 

1931 Assiniboine River 

Location: W . A . G . G73-326 

Medium Dimensions 

oil on 7-1/4" x 9' 
canvas 
on board 

Additional Information: 
s . d . b . l . 

1931 Landscape with Trees 

Location: N . G . C . 5,473 

oil on 
canvas 
on board 

13-3/4" x 16-3/4" 

1931 Doc Snider's House 

1934 

Location: N . G . C . 3993 

Additional Information: 
s. d. b. I. 

The Pool 

oil on 
canvas 

oil on 
board 

Location: N . G . C . 17,612 

Provenance: urchased from Harry 
Adaskin, Vancouver, 1973 

Source: C . Hill, Canadian 
Painting in the Thirties, p.75 

Additional Information: 
s . d . b . l . 

29-1/2" x 33-1/2" 

14-1/4" x 17-1/4" 

1935 Winter Sunset oil 

Location: Saskatoon Gallery 

1 2 " x 14" 



127 

Date 

1937 

Title 

Garage 

Location: 

Source: 

Medi um 

oil on 
canvas 

Mr. &Mrs. George 
Ferguson, Montreal 

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald 
Memorial Exhibition 
Catalogue 1958 

Additional Information: 
s.d.b.r. 

Dimensions 

2 8 " x 24' 

1938 Jar_ oil on 
(also referred to as Still Life - Jug) canvas 

Location: W . A . G . C56-25 
(purchased by The Women's 
Committee) 

Additional Information: 
s.d.b.r. 

24" x 21" 

c. 1940 Still Life - Two Apples 

Location: W . A . G . G56-28 

Additional Information: 
s . b . l . 

oil on 
canvas 

16-1/2" x 19-1/4" 

1941 Still-life 

Location: N . G . C . 17,611 

Provenance: purchased from Harry 
Adaskin 

oil on 
board 

16-1/8" x 14" 

1945 Untitled (Green Apple) 

Location: N . G . C . 16,361 

Additional Information: 
s.d.b.r. Lionel Lemoine 
FitzGerald 45 

oil on 
canvas 

11-1/4" x 12-5/8" 



128 

Date Title Medium Dimensions 

c . 1945 Jugs, Inkwell and Book oil 14" x 12" 

Location: not given 

Source: Morris Gallery Exhibition 
Catalogue Feb. 1973 
(illustrated) 

c. 1945 Still Life with Jug oil 10-1/2" x 8" 

Location: not given 

Source: Morris Gallery Exhibition 
Catalogue Feb. 1973 
(illustrated) 

1947 The Little Plant oil on 23-1/2" x 17-3/4" 
(also referred to as the Little Flower) canvas 

on board 
Location: The McMichael Canadian 

Collection, Kleinburg, 
Ontario 

Source: Harper, Painting in Canada, 
p. 321 

Additional Information: 
s . d . b . l . 

1948 Still Life with Plant oil on 19-3/4" x 14" 
plywood 

Location: Mr. Riley, Winnipeg 

Additional Information: 
s.d.b.r. 

1948 Still Life - Bottle and Jar with Leaves oil on 23-1/2" x 29-1/2" 
canvas 

Location: unknown 
n.r.a. 

Additional Information: 
s.d. in red paint 



129 

Date Title 

c. 1948 From an Upstairs Window, Winter 

Location: N . 5800 

Additional Information: 
s.b.r. 
Refer to: Sketch for From 
An Upstairs Window, 
Winter 11-15/16" x 8-3/16' 
N . A . G . 16298 

Medium Dimensions 

oil on 
canvas 

24" x 18' 

1949 Geranium and Bottle 

Location: W . A . G . L-9 

oil on 24" x 15" 
canvas on 
mason ite 

Additional Information: 
s . d . b . l . 

c. 1949 Manitoba Maple oil not stated 

Source: appeared on Brigden's 
Christmas card 1949 

c. 1950 Composition N o . 1 
- 1951 

Location: Dr. &Mrs. E.J. Thomas 
(done on request) 

oil on 
canvas 

58.0 x 53.0 cm 

Additional Information: 
s.b.I. 

August Trees 
1950 

Location: W . A . G . 73-325 

oil on 16-3/4" x 9-3/8" 
hardboard 

Source: Arnold Brigden Collection 
Catalogue 1974 

Additional Information: 
signed 



130 

Date Title 

August Trees 
1950 

Location: 

Medium Dimensions 

oil on 13-3/4" x 8-1/4' 
hardboard 

W . A . G . G73-324 

Source: Arnold Brigden Collection 
Catalogue 1974 

Additional Information: 
unsigned 

1950 Abstract - Landscape 

Location: W . A . G . G70-154 

Additional Information: 
d. on reverse u.r. 

oil on 
canvas 

21.6 x 35.4 cm 

1951 Composition, 1951 

Location: W . A . G . G70-165 

Additional Information: 
d . b . l . : 6.9.51 

oil on 20.3 x 15.2 cm 
masonite 

1951 Abstract, 1951 

Location: W . A . G . G70-174 

Additional Information: 
d . b . r . : 8.9.51 

oil on 15.2 x 20.3 cm 
masonite 

1952 Abstract, 1952 

Location: W . A . G . G70-200 

Additional Information: 
d . b . l . : 11.12.52 

oil on 
canvas 

28.0 x 26.0 cm 



Date Title 

1952 Deer Lodge 

Location: W . A . G . G70-175 

Additional Information: 
d . b . l . 

1952 Abstract, 1952 

Location: W . A . G . G70-172 

Additional Information: 
d.b.r. 

1953 Abstract, 1953 

Location: W . A . G . G70-170 

Additional Information: 
s.b.I.: d.u.r. 23.10.53 

1953 Abstract, 1953 

Location: W . A . G . G70-201 

Additional Information: 
d . b . r . : 1.9.53 

Medium Dimensions 

oil on 
canvas 

oil on 20.3 x 27.9 cm 
masonite 

oil on 20.3 x 27.9 cm 
masonite 

oil on 28.1 x 35.7 cm 
masonite 

17.9 x 21.3 cm 

1953 Sun Ray 

Location: W . A . G . G70-206 

oil on 
canvas 

19.7 x 20.3 cm 

1954 Autumn Sonata 

Location: School of Art, 
University of Manitoba 

Additional Information: 
marked on reverse, t . l . 

oil on 
board 

59.5 x 75.0 cm 



132 

Date Title Medium Dimensions 

1954 Abstract: Green and Gold 

Location: W . A . G . G63-287 

Provenance: Mr. & M r s . Joseph Harris 

Additional Information: 
s.b.r. dated on back 1954 

oil on 
canvas 

28" x 36" 

1955 Grapefruit - Abstract 

Source: Dr. Alcock's file card 
(b+w photo) 

Additional Information: 
initialled & dated b.r. 

oil on 11-1/4" x 12-3/4' 
canvas on 
masonite 

1955 Untitled (Apple) 

Location: N . G . C . 16,362 

Additional Information: 
u.r.d. 13.5.55 

oil on 7-5/8" x 11 
canvas on 
board 

1955 Hat 

Location: Private Collection 

Source: Morris Gallery Exhibition 
Catalogue Feb. 73 

Additional Information: 
According to Dr. Alcock, 
this painting was started 
August 23, 1955. 
(Refer to Pen Study: Hat) 
Collection: A . G . O . 
dated 18.8.55 

oil on 
masonite 

2 4 " x 30"