William Cruikshank (1848/9 – 1922) was a British painter and the grand-nephew of

George Cruikshank George Cruikshank (27 September 1792 – 1 February 1878) was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached ...

. He studied art at the

Royal Scottish Academy The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country’s national academy of art. It promotes contemporary Scottish art. The Academy was founded in 1826 by eleven artists meeting in Edinburgh. Originally named the Scottish Academy, it became the ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, at the

Royal Academy 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 pur ...

School 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 ...

with

Frederic Leighton Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subjec ...

and

John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...

, and in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

at the Atelier Yvon. His last studies were interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War.

Career

In 1871, Cruikshank settled in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, opened a studio 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 ancho ...

and for twenty-five years was an instructor in the Central Ontario School of Art, later 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 ...

, teaching how to draw from the antique (casts) and from life. He claimed to have been responsible for bring the pen-and-ink technique of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. As a major member of the Toronto Art Students' League, he encouraged his students to follow the motto '' Nulla Dies Sine Linea'' (No Day without a Line). Eventual

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 ...

founder,

J. E. H. MacDonald James Edward Hervey MacDonald (1873–1932) was an English-Canadian artist, best known as a member of the Group of Seven who asserted a distinct national identity combined with a common heritage stemming from early modernism in Europe in the ear ...

, would later say that the northern movement and search for a new Canadian art began with the work of Cruikshank and

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, f ...

. In 1894 he was elected a member 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 ...

and acquired a considerable reputation as a portrait and figure painter, and as a painter of Canadian scenes. Some of his paintings are in 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 l ...

and

Art Gallery of Ontario 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 Beve ...

. ''Ploughing, Lower St. Lawrence'' (c. 1899, Art Gallery of Ontario) reveals his attention to the environment of Canada: it is a landscape subject of habitants in rural Quebec.

Cruikshank and Tom Thomson

It has been suggested that around 1906 or 1907,

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 ...

took private lessons from Cruikshank at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Only two sources corroborate this however. The first is a single undated note from Cruikshank to professor

James Mavor James Mavor (December 8, 1854 – October 31, 1925) was a Scottish-Canadian economist. He served as a Professor of Political Economy of the University of Toronto from 1892 to 1923. His influence upon Canadian economic thought is traced to as la ...

, arranging to bring a "Tomson" to meet him. Further complicating the matter is that the original class list no longer survives. The second is a letter from H. B. Jackson to Blodwen Davies, writing, "Tom studied from life & the antique in art school. If I remember right Cruikshank was the instructor." Cruikshank was likely Thomson's only art instructor in an art school. There also are indications in Thomson`s early work that suggest Cruikshank may have been his teacher. Thomson's painting, reputed to be his first oil, ''Young Man with a Team of Horses'', though modest, is said to have caused Cruikshank to tell him, he'd better "keep on". The theme of ploughing Thomson used is found in Cruikshank's ''Ploughing, Lower St. Lawrence'' and may indicate Thomson knew the work of Cruikshank. Also, if Thomson had Cruikshank as a teacher, he would have been encouraged by his instructor to carry a pocket sketchbook and obtain constant practice in drawing, and Thomson did fill such sketchbooks with drawings c. 1906.

Gallery

File:Bullfinch (Boston Public Library).jpg, ''Bullfinch'', 1861–97.

Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonweal ...

File:Linnet (Boston Public Library).jpg, ''Linnet'', 1861–97. Boston Public Library File:Cruikshank - Breaking a Road.jpg, ''Breaking a Road'', 1894.

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

File:Cruikshank - Sand Wagon.jpg, ''Sand Wagon'', 1895. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

References

Notes

Citations

Literature

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External links

William Cruikshank fonds
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruikshank, William 19th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters 20th-century Scottish painters 19th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters 20th-century Canadian painters 1848 births 1922 deaths Artists from Dundee Scottish emigrants to Canada Royal Scottish Academicians People from Broughty Ferry 19th-century Canadian male artists 20th-century Canadian male artists 19th-century Scottish male artists 20th-century Scottish male artists OCAD University administrators Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts