William Brymner

Following architectural studies, Brymner enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris, France, in 1878, where his instructors were William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury. Both of his teachers were famous exponents of 'Grand manner' naturalism. During this period at the Salon Brymner became interested in the work of Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier, who was already popular with the French public. In the spring of 1884, Brymner travelled to Runswick Bay, North Yorkshire, England, with the British artist Frederick W. Jackson (1859–1918) and Scottish-Canadian artist James Kerr-Lawson (1862–1939). It was there that Brymner completed his major works A Wreath of Flowers (1884), which later served as his diploma submission for the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and The Lonely Orphans Taken to Her Heart (1884). In January 1885, Brymner returned to Paris to resume his studies at the Académie Julian. During this time, he created the Barbizon school-inspired landscape painting Border of the Forest of Fontainebleau (1885), which was exhibited at the Paris Salon. Returning to Canada in 1885, Brymner spent the summer in Baie-Saint-Paul in the Lower Saint Lawrence region of Quebec. There he created his first paintings depicting rural Quebec, a subject he frequently would return to throughout his career.

Born in Greenock, Scotland, the son of Douglas Brymner the first Dominion Archivist and Jean Thomson, Brymner moved with his family to Melbourne, Canada East in 1857. In 1864, his family moved to Montreal, Canada East. They later lived in the area of Ottawa, Canada West where Brymner attended the Ottawa Grammar School. Following architectural studies, Brymner enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris, France, in 1878, where his instructors were William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury. Both of his teachers were famous exponents of 'Grand manner' naturalism. During this period at the Salon Brymner became interested in the work of Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier, who was already popular with the French public. In the spring of 1884, Brymner travelled to Runswick Bay, North Yorkshire, England, with the British artist Frederick W. Jackson (1859–1918) and Scottish-Canadian artist James Kerr-Lawson (1862–1939). It was there that Brymner completed his major works A Wreath of Flowers (1884), which later served as his diploma submission for the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and The Lonely Orphans Taken to Her Heart (1884). In January 1885, Brymner returned to Paris to resume his studies at the Académie Julian. During this time, he created the Barbizon school-inspired landscape painting Border of the Forest of Fontainebleau (1885), which was exhibited at the Paris Salon. Returning to Canada in 1885, Brymner spent the summer in Baie-Saint-Paul in the Lower Saint Lawrence region of Quebec. There he created his first paintings depicting rural Quebec, a subject he frequently would return to throughout his career.

In 1886, Brymner settled in Montreal after staying in Paris "on and off for almost seven years." That year, he travelled to Western Canada via the newly completed Canadian Pacific Railway, hoping to take advantage of the fact that the CPR was commissioning landscapes of the Rocky Mountains. Brymner spent several weeks on the Siksika Nation Reserve near Gleichen (now Alberta), where he witnessed the severe hunger of the Siksika People due to the government's failure to provide adequate food rations. This experience culminated in one of Brymner's most haunting paintings, Giving Out Rations to the Blackfoot Indians, NWT (1886). Upon his return from Western Canada, Brymner began teaching at the Art Association of Montreal, where he would remain for thirty years. Many members of the Beaver Hall Group studied under Brymner, who encouraged them to explore new modernist approaches to painting. Brymner specialized in figure scenes and avoided large historical subjects except for his paintings of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Two Girls Reading of 1898 displays a careful treatment of light and an understanding of the force of a simple emphatic composition.

La Vieille Fileuse, île d'Orléans, 1883, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec A Wreath of Flowers, 1884, National Gallery of Canada La Femme au métier, 1885, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec In the Orchard (Spring), 1892, National Gallery of Canada Early Moonrise in September, 1899, National Gallery of Canada Ile aux Coudres, c. 1900, National Gallery of Canada La Vallée Saint-François, île d'Orléans, 1903, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec Evening, 1907, National Gallery of Canada Near Louisbourg, Cape Breton, N. S., c. 1909, National Gallery of Canada A Young Lady, c. 1910, National Gallery of Canada Fog on the Coast, 1914, National Gallery of Canada Octobre sur la rivière Beaudet, 1914, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec Jeune Fille au chapeau bleu (La Breloque), 1916, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec