This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Charles Fraser Comfort OC, LLD, RCA, CGP, CSGA, CSPWC, FRSA, MSA, OSA (1900 – 1994)
"Be original, but not as original as can be." – Charles Fraser Comfort (1931). (1)
Charles
Fraser Comfort was a Canadian painter, printmaker, illustrator,
muralist, commercial artist, educator and a very prominent leader in
the national art community. He was Canada’s Senior Official War
Artist during World War II, President of the Royal Canadian Academy of
Arts*, and the Director of the National Gallery of Canada.
Hundreds of his works are in Canadian museums and his numerous awards
and honors include one of Canada’s highest, the Order of Canada*.
He
was born in Cramond, Scotland, now part of Edinburgh. His family
moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1912, where he lived until 1925
when he moved to Toronto, Ontario. He died in Ottawa, Ontario
where he had lived since becoming director of the National Gallery of
Canada in 1960. (2)
His mediums include oil, watercolor,
gouache*, tempera*, charcoal, graphite, pen and ink, woodcut*, linocut*
and etching*. His subjects include portraits, landscape, coastal views,
genre*, industrial sites, farms, Indians, historic events, figures,
nudes, catalogue and book illustrations and war. The peacetime
painting locations range across Canada from Nova Scotia to British
Columbia. During World War II, his most famous paintings were
done on the front lines of the Italian campaign; although, he also
painted in England and north-western Europe. His styles were Realism*
and Precisionism*. Much of his work shows the influence of
Charles Sheeler (3) whom he’d met in 1933. AskART have some
excellent illustrations of Comfort’s work. (4)
His art education
began in 1914 with apprenticeship as a graphic designer at Brigdens
Limited, the company that produced the Eaton’s department store
catalogue. He worked for them in Winnipeg and Toronto and
independently in graphic design until 1935. (5)
His formal art
education includes the Winnipeg School of Art (1916 – 1920) under Alex
Musgrove and the Art Students' League*, New York (1922 – 1923) under
Robert Henri, E. Allen Tucker, Frank Vincent DuMond and Joseph Pennell.
His
teaching career includes the Ontario College of Art (1935 – 1938),
where he was director of the Department of Mural Painting; and the
University of Toronto (1938 – 1960) where he began as a lecturer in the
Department of Fine Art, and in 1940 became an associate professor in
the Department of Art and Archaeology. He also taught summer
classes at the Banff School of Fine Arts* (1941, 1948).
In
addition to his teaching duties while on staff at the University of
Toronto, Comfort was a cadet officer with the University Officers
Training Corps from 1939 to 1943; when he was appointed the Senior
Official War Artist for Canada. He served in England, Italy, and
north-western Europe, attaining the rank of major by the time of his
discharge in 1946. (6)
As a prominent leader in the Canadian art
community, Comfort was a member of numerous artist organizations. He
was a founding member of the Canadian Society of Painters in
Watercolour* (1925) and its President (1950 – 1952); a founding member
of the Canadian Group of Painters* (1933) and its President (1951 –
1952); a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts* (Associate 1936,
Academician 1942) and its President (1957 – 1960); a founding member of
the Canadian Society of Graphic Artists* (1923); a founding member of
the Manitoba Society of Artists (1925); a member of the Arts and Letters
Club of Toronto (1920); the Ontario Society of Artists* (1927); a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, England [full name – Royal Society
for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers & Commerce] (1957);
and a member of the Art Directors Club of Toronto (1958). (7)
He
was also an organizer of the Kingston Conference* (1941) and a founding
member of its outgrowth, the Federation of Canadian Artists*. He
contributed to the 1951 Massey Commission Report, which lead to the
founding of the Canada Council (8). He served on the Board of
Directors and on numerous committees at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now
the Art Gallery of Ontario); and, in 1960, he was appointed Director of
the National Gallery of Canada (1960 – 1965); to date (2010) the only
artist to hold that position. (9)
In addition to exhibiting with
the above artist organizations his works have been included in several
major Canadian and international exhibitions including: the “Paris
International Exposition”, Canadian Pavilion [mural] (1937); "A Century
of Canadian Art", Tate Gallery, London, England (1938); “Great Lakes
Exhibition”, Albright Art Gallery [since 1962, Albright-Knox Art
Gallery], Buffalo (1938); the New York World’s Fair (1939); “Three
Hundred Years of Canadian Art”, National Gallery of Canada (1967);
“Canadian Painting in the Thirties”, National Gallery of Canada (1975);
“A Terrible Beauty: The Art of Canada at War”, Robert McLaughlin
Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario and touring (1977); “Heroes and
Heroines”, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (1978); “The Canadian
Landscape”, Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris (1984); “The 1940s: a
decade of painting in Ontario”, Art Gallery of Ontario (1985);
“Permeable Border: Art of Canada and the United States 1920 – 1940”,
Art Gallery of Ontario (1989); “The Art of the Self Portrait”, Art
Gallery of Windsor, Ontario (1993); “The Group of Seven – Art For A
Nation”, National Gallery of Canada (1995); “Brigdens of Winnipeg”,
Winnipeg Art Gallery (2001); “Canvas of War: Painting the Canadian
Experience, 1914 to 1945”, Art Gallery of Ontario (2001 – 2002);
“1953”, Robert McLaughlin Gallery (2003); “Speaking about Landscape,
Speaking to the Land”, Art Gallery of Ontario (2003); “Egos and Icons”,
University of Toronto, Art Centre (2004); and “The Library of Charles
Comfort”, National Gallery of Canada Library (2009). (10)
He
also exhibited in the spring shows at the Art Association of Montreal
[now Montreal Museum of Fine Arts] from 1927 to 1939; with the American
Federation of Arts* in 1930 and 1931; and he was chosen to exhibit with
the Group of Seven* in 1928.
The public venues for his solo and
retrospective exhibitions include: the Winnipeg Art Gallery (1922,
1972, and 2007) and the Art Gallery of Toronto (1933).
Through
the years, his works were also exhibited at numerous private galleries
including: Richardson Gallery, Winnipeg; Robertson Galleries, Ottawa;
Laing Gallery, Toronto; Wallack Galleries, Ottawa; Zwicker's Gallery,
Halifax; and Roberts Gallery, Toronto.
Comfort’s works are
avidly collected in Canada. They are also in numerous public
collections. According to the Canadian Heritage Information Network*
there are 595 of his works in museums across the country. They include:
Museum London (Ontario), Art Gallery of Hamilton (Ontario), Winnipeg
Art Gallery (Manitoba), Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax), McMichael
Canadian Art Collection (Kleinburg, Ontario), Owens Art Gallery
(Sackville, N.B.), Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (B.C.), Art Gallery
of Alberta (Edmonton), Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, Ontario),
Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, Ontario), Ottawa Art Gallery
(Ontario), Quebec Museum of Fine Arts (Quebec City), Art Gallery of
Ontario (Toronto), Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (Banff,
Alberta), Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), Tom Thomson
Memorial Art Gallery (Owen Sound, Ontario), The Market Gallery
(Toronto), Simon Fraser University Gallery (Burnaby, B.C.),
Confederation Centre Art Gallery & Museum (Charlottetown, P.E.I.),
and the Canadian Museum of Civilization (Gatineau, Quebec). The
Canadian War Museum (Ottawa) has the largest collection with 209 of his
paintings and drawings. The National Gallery of Canada houses 21 of his
works and the Library of the National Gallery is home to “The Library
of Charles and Louise Comfort”. (11)
The Comfort Library
consists of more than 800 books – including histories, memoirs, works
of literature; as well as, exhibition catalogues, periodicals,
association copies, inscriptions, annotations, and related ephemera,
such as greeting cards and personal letters. (12)
Comfort
completed several major mural commissions across Canada; perhaps his
finest existing masterpieces are the stone frieze on the exterior of
the Toronto Stock Exchange and the eight murals overlooking the trading
floor, completed in 1937. Several examples of other well-known
Comfort murals are illustrated in, and on the cover of, Marylin Jean
McKay’s book, A National Soul: Canadian Mural Painting, 1860s – 1930s. (13)
Examples of his work as an illustrator are in the books Women of Red River (1923) by William Joseph Healy and Toronto’s 100 Years (1934), by J.E. Middleton. (14)
Charles Comfort is also the author of the book Artist at War (1956), Ryerson Press.
Among
his numerous honors and awards is one of Canada’s highest, appointment
as an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in 1972. He also
received the Centennial Medal in 1967 and an Honorary Doctor of Laws
from Mount Allison University Sackville, New Brunswick in 1958. (15)
In
1955, he was awarded a Canadian Government Overseas Fellowship, “to
investigate the nature, extent and findings of those engaged in old
master paintings technique-research in the Low Countries during the
period 1945-55 and gathered material on 17th century Dutch master
techniques.” He is also a recipient of the “Medaglia al Merito
Culturale” the Medal of Merit for Culture, from the Italian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs (1963); an honorable mention in the Willingdon Arts
Competition* (1929); and he won the Great Lakes Exhibition prize (1938).
Footnotes:
(1) Source: National Gallery of Canada – http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/bio_e.jsp?iartistid=1093.
(2)
Sources: Artist Archive –
http://www.artistarchive.com/Individuals/IndividualDetails.aspx?Ind=2553;
and Roberts Gallery, Toronto –
http://www.robertsgallery.net/dynamic/artist_bio.asp?ArtistID=37.
Note:
In 1936 he obtained a studio space in the famous Studio Building*.
Source: National Gallery of Canada –
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/bio_e.jsp?iartistid=1093.
(3) All artist teachers, and artist associates mentioned in this biography and its footnotes have their own pages in AskART.
(4)
Sources: AskART images; Canadian Military History Gateway –
http://www.phmc-cmhg.gc.ca/html/br-ex/search-eng.asp?No=0&N=100232+20001+10003&Ne=100000;
Canadian War Museum –
http://collections.civilization.ca/public/pages/cmccpublic/emupublic/ResultsList.php;
and Museum illustrations and descriptions of mediums in the Canadian
Heritage Information Network* data base.
(5) Education and teaching sources: Art Gallery of Ontario – the Canadian Collection (1970), by Helen Pepall Bradfield; Four Decades: The Canadian Group of Painters and Their Contemporaries, 1930 – 1970,
(1972), by Paul Duval (see AskART book references); The Manitoba
Historical Society – http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/comfort_cf.shtml;
and Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver –
http://www.elliottlouis.com/dynamic/artists/Charles__Comfort.asp.
(6) Source: A Dictionary of Canadian Artists
(1974), by Colin S. MacDonald (see AskART book references); and Roberts
Gallery, Toronto –
http://www.robertsgallery.net/dynamic/artist_bio.asp?ArtistID=37.
(7) Sources: Art Gallery of Ontario – the Canadian Collection (1970), by Helen Pepall Bradfield (see AskART book references).
(8)
‘The Massey Commission was the name commonly applied to the Royal
Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences,
appointed by the federal government in 1949, headed by Vincent
Massey. Between August 1949 and July 1950, the commission held
public sessions at which it invited experts in various fields to
prepare special studies. In 1951 the commission issued a report which
became known as the 'Massey Report'. It gained recognition as a
document of utmost importance in the cultural history of Canada since
it advocated the principle of federal government patronage of a wide
range of cultural activities and proposed the establishment of a Canada
Council for the encouragement of the Arts, Letters, Humanities and
Social Sciences. Patronage would take the form of scholarships at the
undergraduate and graduate levels and for persons engaged in the arts
and letters to study in Canada or abroad. Among other things, the
Canada Council would also underwrite tours, commission music events of
national importance, and establish awards to young people of promise
whose talents have been revealed in national festivals of music, drama
or the ballet.’ Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia, article by Helmut
Kallmann –
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0002243.
(9)
As NGC Director, Comfort’s apparent carelessness in the fall of 1962
precipitated one of the most infamous events in the museums history,
the exhibition titled “Controversial Century, 1850 – 1950: Paintings
from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.” which ran from
September 28, 1962 to November 4, 1962. The Art Dealers
Association of America [ADAA] (founded March 2, 1962), which had become
suspicious of the Chrysler collection; NGC experts; and experts from
the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts warned Comfort, that up to 90 of the
187 works in the planned exhibition were obvious fakes. Chrysler
maintained they were real, just not masterpieces. Comfort decided
to go ahead with the exhibition anyway and made no effort to alert the
unsuspecting public; his forward in the catalogue and the introduction
by William Dale made no mention of the fakes. The scandal was
exposed after the ADAA, having exhausted all its avenues with Comfort
and Chrysler, tipped off John Canaday, art editor of The New York Times, to the situation (New York Times – October 14,1962). Time Magazine
also covered the story (Oct. 26, 1962); and Life Magazine devoted seven
pages to it (November 2, 1962). Sources: Life Magazine –
http://books.google.ca/books?id=n0oEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=Walter+P.+Chrysler+Jr.+Art+Collection&source=bl&ots=b-XcN8Hztv&sig=hVTzhwmHGiUrvaC3n0V9rSK1kts&hl=en&ei=IymkTLepBdChnQeDocGQAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CC0Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Walter%20P.%20Chrysler%20Jr.%20Art%20Collection&f=false;
Time Magazine –
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,874546,00.html;
ADAA – http://www.artdealers.org/dnloads/adaa_40report.pdf; New
York Times –
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/19/obituaries/walter-p-chrysler-jr-a-collector-of-modern-art-and-artifacts-79.html;
and Cheryl Siegel, Librarian, Vancouver Art Gallery.
Quote: "We expect we will have even bigger crowds. This is the best publicity we could possibly use." – Charles Comfort (Time Magazine,
October 1962). Note: In fairness to Comfort, John Canaday had given the
exhibition a good review when it opened on June 15, 1962 at the
Chrysler Art Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts (New York Times – June
17, 1962). However, when confronted with the same evidence
presented to Comfort, which included sketchy and questionable
provenances, Canaday, with much embarrassment, changed his views.
(10) Exhibition Sources: Art Gallery of Ontario – the Canadian Collection (1970), by Helen Pepall Bradfield; A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (1974), by Colin S. MacDonald; The Group of Seven – Art for a Nation
(1995), by Charles C. Hill (see AskART book references); Art Gallery of
Ontario archives (online); and Roberts Gallery, Toronto –
http://www.robertsgallery.net/dynamic/artist_bio.asp?ArtistID=37.
(11)
Museum sources: Canadian Heritage Information Network* and Canadian War
Museum –
http://collections.civilization.ca/public/pages/cmccpublic/emupublic/ResultsList.php.
(12) Source: National Gallery of Canada – http://www.gallery.ca/english/1637.htm.
(13) Source: A National Soul: Canadian Mural Painting, 1860s – 1930s
(2002), by Marylin Jean McKay (see AskART book references); and
Torontoist article by Kevin Plummer, August 29, 2009 –
http://torontoist.com/2009/08/historicist_finding_comfort_through_hard_times.php.
(14) Source for books: Art Gallery of Ontario archives (online).
(15) Sources for awards and honors: A Dictionary of Canadian Artists
(1974), by Colin S. MacDonald (see AskART book references); and the
Governor General of Canada –
http://archive.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=331.
*
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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