The Timken Gallery is dedicated to the St. Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre's permanent collection. We thank the Timken Foundation for their generous support.
William St. Thomas-Smith
Cornish Countryside
ND
9" x 14"
Watercolour
St. Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre Permanent Collection
The Whale Family - Selections from the Permanent Collection
March 13 to April 17, 2010
The Whale Family will supplement the current exhibition by raising the importance of family ties and influences. Unable to support a growing family, Robert Reginald Whale, his wife Ellen Heard and five children emigrated to Canada West (Ontario) in June 1852. They settled first in the rural village of Burford, then in 1864 moved to the nearby town of Brantford, where Whale established a family studio that employed his sons John Claude (1852-1905) and Robert Heard (1857-1906) and his nephew John Hicks Whale (1829-1905), all three of whom went on to establish professional careers of their own. From this base they submitted work in various genres tot he annual provincial fairs, winning many prizes, and travelled the Western Ontario circuit as itinerant portraitists and landscape painters.
William St. Thomas-Smith
Selections from the Permanent Collection
April 24 to May 22, 2010
William St. Thomas-Smith will supplement the current exhibition by focusing on the life of the artist and his regional and national influences. St. Thomas-Smith is regarded as the pride of St. Thomas and will our pride in our community. During his life, Williams "St. Thomas" Smith was regarded as one of the greatest marine painters and watercolourists of his time. Smith immigrated to Beaverton, Ontario, near Lake Simcoe, as a child in 1869; he graduated from the Ontario School of Art in 1884. A few years later, he married one of his teachers and the couple settled in St. Thomas, where they taught painting to the young ladies at Alma College. Smith was elected associated member of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1902.