Thomas William Fripp (March 23, 1864 – May 30, 1931) was an English-born Canadian artist who portrayed in watercolour the mountains of British Columbia and the Rockies.

Biography

Fripp was the son of

George Arthur Fripp George Arthur Fripp (13 June 1813 – 17 October 1896) was a British watercolourist. He was a grandson of the artist Nicholas Pocock and brother of the painter Alfred Downing Fripp. His nephew was the artist Henry Charles Innes Fripp. Li ...

, an artist, and Mary Percival. He was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. His grandfather Nicholas Pocock founded the Royal Watercolour Society. Fripp studied at St John's Wood Art School and then continued his art studies in Italy in 1886. From 1887 to 1890, he learned from his father at the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

. He came to

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

in 1893, settling at

Hatzic Hatzic is a historic community in the Central Fraser Valley region of the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada, located on the east side of the District of Mission and including areas beyond the municipal boundary to the east and northeas ...

as a

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses *Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept th ...

er. After suffering an injury, Fripp moved to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

to continue in a career as an artist. Between 1900 and 1902, Fripp worked in a local photographic studio. He exhibited his art with the Vancouver Arts and Crafts Association in 1900. With

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 others, he established the British Columbia Society of Fine Arts, which received its charter in 1909, becoming the first chartered art society in the province. Fripp served seven years as the society's first president and served again as president from 1926 to 1931. He also exhibited with the

Island Arts and Crafts Society The Victoria Sketch Club is a Canadian arts organization, the oldest Canadian arts group west of Ontario. It was established in 1909 as The Island Arts Club. The 56 charter members included Emily Carr, Samuel Maclure and Josephine Crease. The club ...

in Victoria from 1912 to 1914 and from 1928 to 1930. In 1920, he became a member of the first executive of the British Columbia Art League. He was president of the Vancouver Sketch Club from 1920 to 1921. He is known mainly for his

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 ...

s of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

and landscapes of the Pacific coast, but he also worked in oil and produced some portraits. He is praised especially for the depiction of light in the mountains. His work is held in private and public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV) is an art museum located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Situated in Rockland, Victoria, the museum occupies a building complex; made up of the Spencer Mansion, and the Exhibition Galleries. The ...

and the

British Columbia Archives The British Columbia Provincial Archives are located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The BC Archives merged with the Royal BC Museum in 2003. The BC Archives contain the archives of the British Columbia government, and are valuable for both ...

. Fripp married Gertrude Maude Muriel in 1897; the couple had two sons and a daughter. He died in Vancouver from bronchial illness at the age of 67. His brother Charles Edwin was also a painter and lived for a time in Canada. His brother Robert McKay was an architect who practised in Vancouver.

Legacy

Fripp had a retrospectives at the Vancouver Art Gallery (1952) and at the

(1983).

Biography

Legacy

References

Further reading