RiverBrink Art Museum is located on the Niagara Parkway in the historic village of

Queenston Queenston is a compact rural community and unincorporated place north of Niagara Falls in the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. It is bordered by Highway 405 to the south and the Niagara River to the east; its location at the eponymo ...

Niagara-on-the-Lake Niagara-on-the-Lake is a town in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Niagara Peninsula at the point where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario, across the river from New York, United States. Niagara-on-the-Lake is in the Niagara Region of On ...

. Open to the public since 1983, the museum is home to a unique collection of over 1,400 works by Canadian and international artists.

Museum

Along with paintings, prints, works on paper, and sculpture, the museum’s collection includes decorative art, archival material, and rare books, assembled by Samuel E. Weir. An Ontario-based lawyer and avid art collector throughout his lifetime, Weir acquired the majority of the works in the museum, which continues to collect through donations and purchases. The location of RiverBrink had a profound influence on the art patron, as there are many depictions of

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...

and the Niagara peninsula in the collection. In the RiverBrink collection are paintings by many of Canada’s most significant artists, including

Tom Thomson Thomas John Thomson (August 5, 1877July 8, 1917) was a Canadian artist active in the early 20th century. During his short career, he produced roughly 400 oil sketches on small wood panels and approximately 50 larger works on canvas. His w ...

Homer Watson Homer Ransford Watson (January 14, 1855 – May 30, 1936) was a Canadian landscape painter. He has been characterized as the painter who first painted Canada as Canada, rather than as a pastiche of European painting. He was a member and pres ...

, Marc Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté,

Cornelius Krieghoff Cornelius David Krieghoff (June 19, 1815 – March 5, 1872) was a Dutch-born Canadian-American painter of the 19th century. Krieghoff is most famous for his paintings of Canadian landscapes and Canadian life outdoors, which were as sought ...

Emily Carr Emily Carr (or M. Emily Carr as she sometimes signed her work) (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist and writer who was inspired by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the painters in Canada to ado ...

, and members of the

Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member". It is official ...

. The collection also contains artwork by well-known British, French, and American artists, such as

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

Mary Cassatt Mary Stevenson Cassatt (; May 22, 1844June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh's North Side), but lived much of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar De ...

Armand Guillaumin Armand Guillaumin (; February 16, 1841 – June 26, 1927) was a French impressionist painter and lithographer. Biography Early years Born Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin in Paris, he worked at his uncle's lingerie shop while attending eveni ...

Grant Wood Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 February 12, 1942) was an American painter and representative of Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for '' American Gothic'' (193 ...

, and

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

, among others. The museum has a large collection of decorative arts, including English and Québec silver, clocks, antique furniture, Indian medals, coins, rugs and ceramics. In addition, RiverBrink’s library and archives hold over 4,000 books, personal correspondence, maps, auction house records, and individual files of several hundred artists. Exhibitions are organized from the permanent collection as well as loans from both public institutions and private collectors. To search the RiverBrink collection, visit the

Canadian Heritage Information Network , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Logo of Canadian Heritage Information Network.png , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = ...

’s ''Artefacts Canada: Humanities'' database. File:Battle of Queenston Heights, Artist Unknown.jpg, James B. Dennis, ''

Battle of Queenston Heights The Battle of Queenston Heights was the first major battle in the War of 1812. Resulting in a British victory, it took place on 13 October 1812 near Queenston, Upper Canada (now Ontario). The battle was fought between United States regulars wit ...

'', File:The Lothian Hills, Homer Watson.jpg,

, ''The Lothian Hills'', 1892. File:Tom Thomson, Sketch for the Jack Pine.jpg,

, ''Sketch for "

The Jack Pine ''The Jack Pine'' is a well-known oil painting by Canadian artist Tom Thomson. A representation of the most broadly distributed pine species in Canada, it is considered an iconic image of the country's landscape,Silcox, p. 193 and is one of th ...

"'', Spring 1916.

History

Sam Weir was born in London, Ontario in 1898. He attended

Osgoode Hall Law School Osgoode Hall Law School, commonly shortened to Osgoode, is the law school of York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The law school is home to the Law Commission of Ontario, the Journal of Law and Social Policy, and the ''Osgoode Hall La ...

in Toronto and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1920. His interest in fine art began with the purchase of a watercolour by English artist

Dame Laura Knight Dame Laura Knight ( Johnson; 4 August 1877 – 7 July 1970) was an English artist who worked in oils, watercolours, etching, engraving and drypoint. Knight was a painter in the figurative, realist tradition, who embraced English Impressi ...

in the early 1920s. Not long afterward, he encountered a painting by Homer Watson and purchased The Lothian Hills (1892) directly from the artist in installments, a practice he would follow in many transactions. Despite numerous subsequent acquisitions, the oil painting by Watson remained a lifelong favorite. Sam Weir died in 1981, leaving his collection and estate to the Weir Foundation, incorporated in 1962.Masson, Mary Willan. ''The Consummate Canadian: A Biography of Samuel Weir Q.C.'' Toronto: Natural Heritage, 1999

Architecture and design

Weir purchased land in Queenston in 1943 and began construction on the site in the late 1950s. The country residence and coach house were designed by English-born architect Arthur E. Nutter (1874–1967), a family friend and the first architect to practice in London, Ontario. Weir contributed significantly to the design, requesting details such as a fall-out shelter in the basement and a self-contained apartment over the coach house. For the main building, Nutter adapted a

Georgian-style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, Geor ...

complete with mansard roof and gabled windows. The interior rooms retain their original wood paneling, installed by finish-carpenter Alexander Kiss, who used a variety of different woods, including maple, mahogany, oak, knotty pine, and walnut, with clear pine and birch ceilings. The home was completed in 1970 and converted into an art museum following Weir’s death. In 1996, a large porch on the east side of the building was replaced by additional exhibition space.

References

External links

*
Artefacts Canada: Humanities
{{authority control Art museums and galleries in Ontario Museums in the Regional Municipality of Niagara