J.W. Beatty

Canadian
Born in Toronto, Ontario, 30 May 1869
Died in Toronto, Ontario, 04 October 1941

John William Beatty was a Toronto fireman in his youth, and served in the Riel Rebellion in 1885. He studied at Central Ontario School of Art under J W L Forster and G A Reid.He also studied at Academie Julian in Paris, France. He lived in Toronto for most of his life. He was promoted into the Ontario Society of Artists (OSA) is 1901, Association des Representants en Chausseurs (ARCA) in 1903, and Royal Canadian Academy of Art(RCA) in 1913. He taught at the Ontario College of Art from 1912 to 1914. It is often mentioned that his influence was strongly felt in the early days of the Group of Seven and in particular he was strongly followed by Tom Thomson. Beatty would later build Thomson’s memorial cairn at Canoe Lake in 1917, having been hit hard by Thomson’s drowning.Canvases of Beatty come up for sale very rarely. The colours in this one, in particular show the influence of the Impressionists from Europe.