Owen Staples, also known as Owen Poe Staples (September 3, 1866 - December 6, 1949), was a Canadian painter, etcher, pastelist, political cartoonist, author, musician and naturalist.
Early life and training
Staples' family arrived in Hamilton, ON from England in 1872. Abandoned by their father, the family moved to Rochester, NY in 1876. After Staples' mother died in 1881, he was hired as a messenger boy at the Rochester Art Club where he was given the nickname Poe. There he began his art training with Horatio Walker and Harvey Ellis. In 1885, after nine years in the United States, Staples moved to Toronto, ON to study under George Agnew Reid. That same year, he was hired by John Ross Robertson, founder of the Toronto Telegram. Granted a leave of absence by Robertson, Staples moved to Philadelphia in 1886 for two years of study under Thomas Eakins and Thomas Pollock Anshutz at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Professional career
From 1888 to 1908, Staples worked for the Telegram as a staff artist, reporter and political cartoonist,[1] and illustrator for the J. Ross Robertson Collection.[2] The Battle of York is an example from this collection. Thereafter, Staples became a well known artist, illustrating a number of books, executing commissioned murals, and producing a vast oeuvre of paintings, watercolours and etchings. Robertson also commissioned Staples to paint several large canvases of historical subjects.[3] Seven of these works now hang in Toronto`s New City Hall. He continued to write and illustrate a vast number of articles for the Telegram on subjects of his own choosing.
Association with Tom Thomson
Postcard featuring Staples in the Don valley circa 1909
In 1905, Tom Thomson came under the influence of his cousin Dr. William Brodie.[4] Brodie was the director of Biology at the Ontario Provincial Museum,[5] the precursor of the Royal Ontario Museum. Brodie and Staples frequently explored the Don River valley together and young Thomson often accompanied them. Thomson scholar Joan Murray wrote: "Thomson also learned from Brodie how to collect specimens; as a young man, he accompanied his relative on collecting trips." Staples, who was rarely without his paintbox easel, illustrated treatises for Brodie who consulted on natural history articles written for the Telegram by Staples. The artistic but inexperienced Thomson was intrigued by Staples, a master watercolourist, who made every effort to 'catch the light' with his quickly rendered pictures.
Angie Littlefield, who has researched Thomson's Toronto years,[6] stated: "Also in Brodie’s circle was Owen Staples who lived across from the Brodies on the east side of the Don River.... Staples was a founding member of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and a magnet for artists of all kinds. Whenever possible, Tom, who loved music, attended the choir’s concerts or gave tickets to relatives so that they too could enjoy the finest choral music Toronto had to offer. ...and Staples [was a key figure] in the intellectual life of the Brodie home and thus by extension, a major influence on Tom."[7] Indeed, Thomson painted a number of watercolours between 1904 and 1909.[8]
Association with the Group of Seven
A. J. Casson wrote: "Owen Staples was the first professional artist I met in Toronto in 1916. I was a lad of 18 and he kindly helped to provide me with an entrée to the local art scene. I joined the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto in 1920, when Vincent Massey was president. Owen Staples was a staunch supporter of the club and very active." "Many good times were spent at[9] 69 Hogarth Avenue, in Toronto's east end, a favorite meeting place for artists, musicians, writers, etc."[10] The "Studio", completed in 1904, was designed by Staples and artist C.W. Jefferys in an Arts and Crafts style.
For many years Staples held an open house on Sundays which attracted a lively cross-section of Toronto society. Regular visitors included the artists who would become the Group of Seven and other members of the Arts and Letters Club. Visitors included opera star Bertha May Crawford, architect Eden Smith, banker and art patron Sir Byron Edmund Walker who purchased many of Staples' works, the celebrated cellist Leo Smith and a host of other artists, poets, writers, educators, ministers, musicians, politicians and bankers. Perhaps the most enigmatic visitor was William Leonard Hunt, also known as The Great Farini, who pitched a tent in the backyard and stayed for the summer. In later years, Staples' son William and his close friend Charles Comfort attracted a younger generation of Toronto's arts community.[11] The weekly open house gradually petered out after the untimely death of William in 1929.
Selected public collections
Art Gallery of Ontario
City of Toronto Archives
Library and Archives Canada
McCord Museum
National Gallery of Canada
Queen's University
Royal Ontario Museum
Toronto Public Library
University of Toronto
Exhibitions
1880 1st Rochester Art Club Exhibition, Rochester, NY, USA
1888-1948 Royal Canadian Academy[12] Toronto, ON
1889-1948 Ontario Society of Artists, Toronto, ON
1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, IL, USA
1894 California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894, San Francisco, USA
1901 Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, NY, USA
1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St Louis, MI, USA
1910, 1939 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, USA
1933-1938 The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, Glasgow, UK
1939 Exhibition of Water Colours By Canadian Artists, Gloucester, UK
1944-1945 The Exhibition of Contemporary Canadian Painting, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil
1977 Royal Ontario Museum, Canadiana Gallery, Toronto, ON, posthumous retrospective exhibition
1996 Owen Staples: A Retrospective, Market Gallery, Toronto, ON posthumous retrospective exhibition
Memberships
1885 Founding member, Toronto Art Student League (after 1904, The Graphic Arts Club: after 1933, Canadian Society of Graphic Art)
1889 Member, Ontario Society of Artists
1894-1942 Founding member, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
1908 Founding member, The Arts and Letters Club
1912-46 Board member (Vice Chairman 1927-1930), Ontario College of Art (after 1996, Ontario College of Art and Design: after 2010, OCAD University)
1916 Founding member, later President, Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers (after 1976, Print and Drawing Council of Canada)
1925 Charter Member, Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour
Book illustrations
Robertson, John Ross. Landmarks of Toronto. Vol. 1: 1792-1893, 1894. Vol. 2: 1834-1895, 1896. Vol. 3: 1834-1898, 1898. Vol. 4: 1834-1904, 1904. Vol. 5: 1834-1908. Vol. 6: 1834-1914, 1914.
Simcoe, Elizabeth Posthuma. The Dairy of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe. Toronto: William Briggs, 1911.
Snider, C.H.J. The Story of the 'Nancy' and Other Eighteen-Twelvers. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1926.
Torontonensis. Yearbooks 1930-1934.
Hathaway E.J. Jesse Ketchum and His Times. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1929
Trail, Catherine Parr. The Backwoods of Canada. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1929.
Pierce, Lorne. William Kirby: The Portrait of a Tory Loyalist. Toronto: MacMillian Company of Canada, 1929.
Middleton, J.E. The Romance of Ontario. Toronto: Gage, 1931.
Moore, Kathleen, and Jessie McEwen. A Picture History of Canada. Toronto: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1942.
Notes
A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker
archive.org/
Artist's Documentation File, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.
thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/tom-thomson/
Canadian Who's Who. Vol. 2. London: Times Publishing Co., 1936.
Staples, Rod. "Owen Staples, Painter of Canada's Past". The Beaver, February–March, 1992.
Staples, Rod and Ian Galt. Owen Staples: Painter of Canada's Past. Scarborough: Hogarth Press, 1998.
Toronto Public Library, John Ross Robertson Collection. Historicity: Toronto Then and Now, website, http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca (accessed January 11, 2008).
Tovell, Rosemarie L. A New Class of Art, The Artist's Print in Canadian Art, 1877-1920. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1996.
References
"Rostap - Artists - Musée McCord Museum". mccord-museum.qc.ca. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
"Category:Robertson's Landmarks of Toronto". wikimedia.org. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
"Eloquent Systems Inc - JPEG 2000 Viewer". eloquent-systems.com. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
DCB/DBC Staff, John Beadle Graphic Designer. "Biography – BRODIE, WILLIAM – Volume XIII (1901-1910) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". biographi.ca. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
"Ontario Provincial Museum". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
http://angielittlefield.com/ebooks/TomThomsonTorontoNeighbourhoods.pdf Tom Thomson’s Toronto Neighbourhoods Retrieved 27 May 2015.
http://angielittlefield.com/ebooks/TomThomsonTorontoNeighbourhoods.pdf Tom Thomson’s Toronto Neighbourhoods Retrieved 27 May 2015.
"Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné - The Catalogue". tomthomsoncatalogue.org. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
"owen staples house exterior :Digital Archive: Virtual Reference Library". Toronto Public Library. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
'Studio' Staples,
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/servlet/imageserver?src=DO99-1000&ext=x.pdf Retrieved 27 May 2015
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