Victor Llewellyn Child (1897–1960) was a Canadian painter,

etcher Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

and newspaper

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

. A senior pen-and-ink commercial artist at the ''

Toronto Telegram ''The Toronto Evening Telegram'' was a conservative, broadsheet afternoon newspaper published in Toronto from 1876 to 1971. It had a reputation for supporting the Conservative Party at the federal and the provincial levels. The paper competed wit ...

'' for much of his professional career, in private life he produced landscapes and portraits in watercolours and oils.

Career

Victor Child was born in

Palmerston, Ontario Palmerston (population 2,599) is an unincorporated community in the south end of the town of Minto, in the north part of Wellington County, in Ontario, Canada. History Palmerston was a key division point for the Grand Trunk and later the Cana ...

, and studied first in Toronto at the

Ontario College of Art Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...

with

George Agnew Reid George Agnew Reid (also known as G. A. Reid) (July 25, 1860 – August 23, 1947) was a Canadian artist, painter, influential educator and administrator. He is best known as a genre painter, but his work encompassed the mural, and genre, ...

, Charles Macdonald Manley (Manly) and John William Beatty, and later in London at Heatherley's. While in England during the First World War he served with the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

. In 1920 he joined the

Canadian Society of Graphic Art The Canadian Society of Graphic Art (CSGA), originally called the Graphic Arts Club, was a non-profit organization of Canadian graphic artists. It was founded in 1904, and formally chartered in 1933. At one time it was one of the larger organizatio ...

, exhibiting his etchings and illustration drawings with the society in 1925–1927 and 1931–1933 at the

Art Gallery of Toronto The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Bev ...

. The prominent Toronto printing firm Rous and Mann commissioned his work in 1927 for its Canadian Artists' series Christmas cards in company with distinguished painters such as

Casson Cassons or Casson is the name of a Yokuts people, Yokuts Native American tribe in central eastern California. The Cassons are also called the Gashowu. The Casson Yokuts territory extended from the eastern side of San Joaquin Valley floor eastward ...

Harris Harris may refer to: Places Canada * Harris, Ontario * Northland Pyrite Mine (also known as Harris Mine) * Harris, Saskatchewan * Rural Municipality of Harris No. 316, Saskatchewan Scotland * Harris, Outer Hebrides (sometimes called the Isle of ...

and Varley. Victor Child was again among these artists when in 1934 he donated work for the André Lapine Benefit exhibition chaired by Sir Wyly Grier. During the 1920s and '30s he was on staff at the '' Mail & Empire'' and ''

Star Weekly The ''Star Weekly'' magazine was a Canadian periodical published from 1910 until 1973. The publication was read widely in rural Canada where delivery of daily newspapers was infrequent. History Formation The newspaper was founded as the ''Toronto ...

'' newspapers in Toronto as an illustrator. He married portrait painter Marjorie Thompson in 1928. Later, in 1940, he joined the ''Telegram'' and worked there until his death. Child was a decidedly conservative artist. He illustrated religious subjects for the Salvation Army and the Anglican Church of Canada and worked on instructional materials for the Toronto Board of Education. For their annual shows in 1946 and 1947 he exhibited canvases with 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 ...

. Perhaps the most significant moment in Canadian art history that involved Child's paintings occurred in 1959 when his work was featured in the exhibition ''Points of View,'' organized by

Clare Bice Albert Clare Bice (January 24, 1909 – May 18, 1976) was a Canadians, Canadian artist, curator, and children's book author/illustrator. Biography Born in Durham, Ontario, and raised in London, Ontario, London, he received a Bachelor of Arts ...

, curator of the Public Library and Art Museum in London, Ontario. At this show, visitors saw the work of the traditionalist/realist Ontario Institute of Painters, of which Child was a founding member in 1958, hung beside paintings by the Canadian modernist abstract group

Painters Eleven Painters Eleven (also known as Painters 11 or P11) was a group of abstract artists active in Canada between 1953 and 1960. They are associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement. History Since the 1920s, artists in English Canada had been h ...

.Kay Woods
"A History of Painters Eleven (The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario, 1970)"
''artscanada'' (May/June 1979). Crowds of art enthusiasts, especially at Hart House in Toronto were large. As a popularity contest in critical opinion it was perhaps a draw, but the fame of the abstract artists soon far eclipsed that of the realists. Victor Child died in Toronto on July 12 of the following year.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Child, Victor Burials at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto Royal Flying Corps personnel Canadian military personnel from Ontario 20th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters Artists from Ontario Canadian illustrators 1960 deaths 1897 births Alumni of the Heatherley School of Fine Art 20th-century Canadian male artists