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Ad Code: 3
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from Auction House Records.
HOCKEY ON HENRI JULIEN STREET AT PINE AVENUE EAST, MONTREAL
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Frederick Bourchier Taylor B.Arch., RCA, CPE, CSGA, FCA, AAO, AAM, ARIBA, MRAIC, PQAA (1906 – 1987)
“… Leonard looked at Fred, who had one eye closed, the other
squinting along the sight line of his swiveling, 12-gauge Franchi
shotgun. The last thing that Leonard remembered were the barrels
pointing at him as Fred squeezed the trigger. Leonard slumped bleeding
to the ground, shot in the face and upper body.” (1)
The lines above are not taken from a Dashiell Hammett detective story
nor are they a scene from a gangster movie; they are supposedly a true
account of an encounter between two very prominent Canadian artists –
Leonard Brooks (see AskART) and Frederick Bourchier Taylor. The
non-fatal shooting on December 9, 1969, reported at the time as “a
hunting accident”, is now believed by some to have been precipitated by
Brooks’ perceived lack of respect for Taylor’s painting skills.
Taylor was 63 years old at the time, Brooks 58 – they behaved like
notorious rappers?! For the full story see, Leonard and Reva Brooks: artists in exile in San Miguel de Allende (2001), by John Virtue; and Fred Taylor: Brother in the Shadows (2008), also by John Virtue. Now, the biography of the shooter…
Frederick Bourchier Taylor was a famous Canadian painter, printmaker,
sculptor and educator. He was known for his paintings depicting war
industry workers during World War II; as well as for his portraits,
landscapes and cityscapes. Hundreds of his works are in the
permanent collections of Canadian museums. (2)
He was born in Ottawa, Ontario, where other than for travel and school
he lived intermittently until 1937. He died in San Miguel de
Allende, Mexico where he had lived since 1960. His other homes
included London, England (1916 – 1918) and Montreal, Quebec (1937 –
1959). (3)
His graphic mediums included oil, watercolor, Conte Crayon*, charcoal,
graphite, ink, aquatint*, lithograph*, serigraph*, linocut* and mixed
mediums. His sculptures are in stone and bronze. His
subjects are industrial workers, factories, mines, shipyards,
landscapes, urban scenes, architecture, genre, social commentary, still
life, nudes, portraits and figures. The painting locations are
the cities and countryside near where he lived as well as from his
travels in Europe, Canada and the USA. His styles were Realism*,
Social Realism*, and Fauvism*. AskART has some good illustrations
of his work. (4)
His formal art education includes a Bachelors Degree in Architecture
from McGill University, Montreal (1925 – 1930) where he studied drawing
under Edmond Dyonnet (5). He also studied art history at the
Sorbonne, Paris (1931); drawing with Ernest Fosbery in Ottawa (1932 –
1933); drawing, etching and lithography at Central School of Arts and
Crafts, London, England (1934) under Bernard Meninsky and William
Palmer Robins; drawing and etching at Goldsmiths College, University of
London, England (1934 – 1937) under James Bateman, Stanley Anderson,
Alfred Clive Gardiner and Ernest Michael Dinkel; and painting and
drawing at the Byam Shaw School*, London, England (1935 – 1937) under
Francis Ernest Jackson, Lancelot Glasson, and Patrick Edward
Phillips. His resume also notes that he worked briefly in the
office of Le Corbusier in Paris, France (1931) and took a
correspondence course in caricaturing from the Landon School of
Illustrating and Cartooning*, USA (1922 – 1925). (6)
His teaching career was brief; he taught drawing and modeling at McGill's School of Architecture from 1940 to 1943.
His extensive travels include England, Scotland and France (1928);
England and France (1930 – 1931); Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany
and Holland (1931 – 1932); Scotland, France, Denmark, Norway and
Sweden (1936); the USSR (1951); Europe (1963); and frequent trips
to Mexico from 1954 to 1960. (7)
Taylor attended the Kingston Conference* in 1941. He was a charter
member of its outgrowth the Federation of Canadian Artists*, its Quebec
Branch President (1944 – 1945) and National Vice-President (1945). He
was a member of the Art Association of Ottawa (1931), the Society of
Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers* (1934), the Arts Club [Montreal]
(1939), the Canadian Society of Graphic Art* (1943), and the Royal
Canadian Academy of Arts* (Associate – 1946, Academician – 1966). He
was also the President of the Architectural Society, McGill University
(1929); an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects
(ARIBA); a member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
(MRAIC); and a member of the Province of Quebec Association of
Architects (PQAA). (8)
In addition to exhibiting with the above artist organizations, he also
exhibited with the Art Association of Montreal (now the Montreal Museum
of Fine Arts) from 1933 to 1960; the Ontario Society of Artists in 1935
and 1943; the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, London, England in 1936;
and the Philadelphia Print Club, “5th International Exhibition of
Prints” in 1937. He also exhibited with Ernst Neumann and Sam
Borenstein at the Art Association of Montreal in 1941. The
information form he submitted to the National Gallery of Canada on
August 20, 1939 lists several other exhibition venues but without
dates, they are: the Art Institute of Chicago, the Seattle Art Museum,
the Prairie Printmakers (Wichita) and the Northwest Printmakers
(Seattle). (9)
Posthumously, his works were included in “The Society of Canadian
Painter-Etchers and Engravers in Retrospect”, Art Gallery of Hamilton,
Ontario (1981); “Industrial Images”, Art Gallery of Hamilton (1988);
“Printing in Quebec, 1900 – 1950”, Quebec Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec
City (1988); “Canadian Artists Overseas”, Art Gallery of Windsor,
Ontario (1992); “From Rome to Home”, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina,
Saskatchewan(1999); and “Canvas of War: Painting the Canadian
Experience, 1914 to 1945”, Art Gallery of Ontario (2001 – 2002).
The Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, New Brunswick had a solo exhibition of his work in 1993.
Through the years his works were also exhibited in some of Montreal’s
(and Canada’s) most prestigious commercial Galleries including Dominion
Gallery, Montreal; Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal; and Galerie
Jeanne Newman, Montreal.
Taylor’s works are avidly collected in Canada. They are also in
numerous public collections. According to the Canadian Heritage
Information Network* and the Quebec Museum Society there are a total of
633 Frederick Bourchier Taylor works in the permanent collections of
Canadian museums. They include: Owens Art Gallery (Sackville, N.B.),
Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, Ontario), Quebec Museum of Fine
Arts (Quebec City), Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), Mendel Art
Gallery (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts,
Glenbow Museum (Calgary, Alberta), Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery
(Concordia University, Montreal), Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
(B.C.), Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton, New Brunswick), the
Joliette Art Museum (Quebec), Ottawa Art Gallery (Ontario), Sherbrooke
Museum of Fine Arts (Quebec), Canadian War Museum (Ottawa) and the
National Gallery of Canada, which has 15 of his works.
McGill University is the home of the Fred Taylor Archives which
includes an unpublished autobiographical manuscript, essays,
photographs (professional and social snapshots), correspondence (2000
letters, documents and memorandums, from the early 1920s up until
Taylor's death), 1550 reproductions of his work, six original prints
and seven original canvases. (10)
The Library and Archives of Canada also has archival and artistic
material for Frederick B. Taylor. There are 185 entries sorted by
category and decade; starting in the 1900s ending in the 1990s. They
include textual records, photographs, films, architectural drawings and
163 works of art, primarily pencil drawings of fur-workers and
portraits. (11)
During World War II, Taylor thought it was important for moral and
history to record the contributions of home front war workers in the
armaments plants, munitions plants, shipyards and elsewhere; much like
the war artists were doing in the military. He devoted 3 years
between 1942 and 1946 to this self-directed project. His
paintings depict everything from cutting birch trees for airplane
parts, to tank manufacture, to packing artillery shells. Two hundred
and thirty seven of his drawings and paintings of these subjects are in
the collection of the Canadian War Museum. (12)
For those reflecting back to the lines of paragraphs one and two, and
wondering if there is any objective reason why an accomplished and
successful artist like Taylor would need validation from another
artist, there isn't one. It’s interesting to note that, according to
accession data, at the time of the shooting incident the National
Gallery of Canada had eight Taylor works in its permanent collection
and one by Leonard Brooks. Today there are three Brooks works in the
NGC and a total of 135 of his works in Canadian museums, very
impressive but still no contest. For more on Leonard Brooks – war
artist and founder of the San Miguel de Allende artist's colony see
AskART.
Footnotes:
(1) Page 280, Leonard and Reva Brooks: Artists in Exile in San Miguel de Allende (2001), by John Virtue (see AskART book references).
(2) Bourchier is an old family name, Taylor’s family claims to trace
their linage back to the time and army of William the Conqueror.
Frederick’s older brother Edward Plunket “E.P.” Taylor (1901 – 1989)
was a very famous Canadian business tycoon, philanthropist and
racehorse owner (Northern Dancer, Kentucky Derby, 1964). Fred Taylor’s
second wife (he was married three times) was American artist Nova Hecht.
(3) Source: A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (1974), by Colin S.
MacDonald volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker
(2007) –
http://www.pro.rcip-chin.gc.ca/bd-dl/aac-aic-eng.jsp?
emu=en.aich:/Proxapp/ws/aich/user/wwwe/Record&upp=0&m=1
&w=NATIVE%28%27ARTIST+ph+words+%27%27frederick+taylor
%27%27%27%29&order=native%28%27every+AR%27%29&bio=TaylorFrederickB.htm;
and National Gallery information form dated July 4, 1960 –
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=DO9349&ext=x.pdf.
(4) Sources: AskART Images; and museum illustrations and descriptions
of mediums in the Canadian Heritage Information Network* data base; and
the Canadian War Museum data base.
(5) All artist teachers, and artist associates mentioned in this biography and its footnotes have their own pages in AskART.
(6) Sources: National Gallery of Canada information forms dated 1933,
1939, 1960, 1964 –
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=DO9347&ext=x.pdf;
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=DO9348&ext=x.pdf;
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=DO9349&ext=x.pdf
and
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=DO9350&ext=x.pdf.
(7) Source: A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (1974), by Colin S.
MacDonald volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker
(2007); and National Gallery of Canada information form dated August
20,1939 –
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=DO9348&ext=x.pdf.
(8) Sources: National Gallery of Canada information forms dated
1933,1939,1960,1964 –
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=DO9347&ext=x.pdf;
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=DO9348&ext=x.pdf;
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=DO9349&ext=x.pdf
and
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=DO9350&ext=x.pdf.
(9) Sources for exhibitions: A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (1974), by Colin S. MacDonald; The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction
(2001), by Anthony R. Westbridge and Diana L. Bodnar (see AskART book
references); the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art* –
http://ccca.finearts.yorku.ca/OSA/search_detail.html?artist=Frederick+B.+Taylor&qtitle=&qdate=&keyfield=search;
and the National Gallery of Canada information form dated August
20,1939 –
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=DO9348&ext=x.pdf.
(10) The Taylor Archive, Canadian Architecture Collection, McGill
University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada –
http://cac.mcgill.ca/fredtaylor/biography3.htm.
(11) The Library and Archives of Canada –
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/lac-bac/results/arch?FormName=Fed+Simple+Search&SourceQuery=
&PageNum=1&SortSpec=score+desc&SearchIn_1=&SearchInText_1=frederick+b.+taylor+&Operator_1=AND
&SearchIn_2=&SearchInText_2=&Operator_2=AND
&SearchIn_3=&SearchInText_3=&Sources_1=amicus&Sources_2=mikan&Sources_3=genapp&Sources_4=web&soundex=
&cainInd=&ResultCount=10&MaxDocs=-1&Sources=mikan.
(12) Sources: Canadian Museum of Civilization/ Canadian War Museum –
http://collections.civilization.ca/public/pages/cmccpublic/emupublic/ResultsList.php.
* For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see
AskART.com Glossary
http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx.
Prepared and contributed by M.D. Silverbrooke.
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| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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