Lucius Richard O'Brien (or L. R. O'Brien as he was known) (15 August 1832 – 13 December 1899) was an influential 19th-century

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

landscape artist.

Life and career

Lucius O'Brien was born in

Shanty Bay Oro-Medonte is a township in south-central Ontario, Canada, on the northwestern shores of Lake Simcoe in Simcoe County. The two neighbouring townships of Oro and Medonte were merged in 1994, under a restructuring of Simcoe County. It is divi ...

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...

, a village his father founded on the shore of

Lake Simcoe Lake Simcoe is a lake in southern Ontario, Canada, the fourth-largest lake wholly in the province, after Lake Nipigon, Lac Seul, and Lake Nipissing. At the time of the first European contact in the 17th century the lake was called ''Ouentironk' ...

.Reid, 85. His father was Edward George O'Brien R.N who retired from the Navy in 1830 and went out to Canada and settled in Shanty Bay. He became a J.P and Colonel of Militia. He married Sophie Gapper and died in 1875. He was a descendant of

Sir Edward O'Brien, 2nd Baronet Sir Edward O'Brien, 2nd Baronet (7 April 1705 – 26 November 1765) was an Irish politician and baronet. Life Born in England in 1705, he was the eldest surviving child of Lucius O'Brien (1675-1717 d.v.p) and Catherine Keightley (1676- c. ...

. Lineage:
• Lucius Richard O'Brien (15 August 1832 – 13 December 1899)
• Edward George O'Brien (1799-1875)
• Lucius O'Brien (1765-1840)
• Donough O'Brien
•

(7 April 1705 – 26 November 1765) He graduated from

Upper Canada College Upper Canada College (UCC) is an elite, all-boys, private school in Toronto, Ontario, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The college is widely described as the country's most prestigious preparatory school, and has produce ...

in 1847 and is said to have directly started work in an architect's office where he did drafting. In 1852, he won two prizes at the Ontario Provincial Exhibition for painting. In 1856, he was listed as an artist in Toronto's City Directory. In 1872, Lucius began

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compo ...

, and quickly excelled in the genre. Two year later, after a dispute with artist

John Arthur Fraser John Arthur Fraser (also known as John A. Fraser and J. A. Fraser) (9 January 1838 – 1 January 1898) was an English artist, photography entrepreneur and teacher. He undertook various paintings for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He is known for h ...

, O'Brien took Fraser's position as vice-president of the

Ontario Society of Artists The Ontario Society of Artists (OSA) was founded in 1872. It is Canada's oldest continuously operating professional art society. When it was founded at the home of John Arthur Fraser, seven artists were present. Besides Fraser himself, Marmaduke M ...

, a position he held until 1880, when he became founding President of the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...

. He is best known for landscape paintings from across Canada in oil and watercolour, such as, ''Sunrise on the Saguenay'' of 1880, which was the first academy diploma piece in the Royal Canadian Academy's first annual exhibition. In 1880, O'Brien began to work on ''Picturesque Canada'' (1882–84), which he edited. O'Brien toured across Canada, meeting with the country's artists and commissioned artists to produce

woodblock prints Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is crea ...

for illustration of the text. O'Brien's art, and in particular ''Picturesque Canada,'' aimed to celebrated Canada's natural landscape united under confederation.Harper, 193-195. O'Brien was one of the first artists invited to travel to and paint the Rocky Mountains on the newly completed Canadian Pacific Railway in 1886. He died in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, Ontario at the age of 67. Cap Trinite

Notes

References

* Harper, Russell. ''Painting in Canada: A History.'' 2nd Edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981. * Reid, Dennis. ''A Concise History of Canadian Painting.'' 2nd Edition. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1988. .

External links

Examples of O'Brien's landscapes
from the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the ...

's image database ''Cybermuse.''
Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Lucius Richard 1832 births 1899 deaths 19th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters Canadian landscape painters Canadian engineers 19th-century Canadian male artists Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts