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.

Life and career

left|thumb|Homer Watson's birthplace, pictured in 1866. Watson's grandfather, James Watson, built the house .

Homer Ransford Watson was born on 14 January 1855, in Doon, Ontario, the second of Ransford and Susan Mohr Watson's five children. A small village founded in the 1830s at the junction of Schneider's Creek and the Grand River, Doon's earliest documented population was 150 in the 1871 census. Watson descended from German Mennonite settlers who arrived in Ontario in the early 19th century. His father, a mill and factory owner, died in 1861 when Watson was six years old. Following Ransford's death, the family's only source of income was Susan's work as a seamstress. Ransford left behind a library of books that Watson studied from and influenced his early drawings. A gift of a set of paints from an aunt made him decide to become an artist. He sought the advice of Thomas Mower Martin in Toronto, and moved there in 1874. He copied works at the Toronto Normal School and was mainly self-taught, but met other artists in Toronto (e.g., Lucius O'Brien) while working part-time at the Notman-Fraser photography studio.

In 1876, Watson traveled to New York State, and may have seen the work of painter George Inness.

The artists with whom Watson was most often associated were the English landscape painter John Constable (1776–1837) and such French Barbizon artists as Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867), Charles-François Daubigny (1817–1878), Narcisse Díaz de la Peña (1807–1876), Constant Troyon (1810–1865), Jules Dupré (1811–1889), and tangentially Jean-François Millet (1814–1875) because Watson didn`t share Millet's focus on the nobility of human figures.

In 1882, while touring Canada, Oscar Wilde first noted the similarity between Watson and Constable, dubbing him the "Canadian Constable" due to the similarity between Watson's work and of the great English landscape painter.

He campaigned to save the Waterloo County woodlands that he had preserved in his landscapes. Due to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 in which he lost his savings, he was forced to hand over many works from his personal collection to the local savings & loans firm, which held them for security and then tried to sell the paintings itself.

Legacy

thumb|Homer Watson House in [[Doon, Ontario.]]

Many of Watson's works are still on display at his old house, which he and his sister had transformed into a small art gallery. Homer Watson's letters, his unpublished manuscripts, and his paintings, drawings, and prints document the issues that most interested him as an artist. Of his concerns, the commemoration of southern Ontario's pioneers and early settlers and the visual expression of Canadian regional and national identities locate Watson firmly within the milieu of many of his fellow artists of the time. In addition to these priorities, his dedication to safeguarding the natural environment was exceptional and far-sighted.

An arterial road in Kitchener, which connects the Doon area to the main parts of the city, is named Homer Watson Boulevard.

Watson has been designated a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada.

Watson's former house in Doon, now the Homer Watson House & Gallery, was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1980.

Selected works

<gallery mode="nolines">

File:Homer Watson - Old Mill and Stream - 1879.jpg|Old Mill and Stream 1879

File:The Castellated Cliff 1879.jpg|The Castellated Cliff 1879

File:The Stone Road 1881.jpg|The Stone Road 1881

File:Down in the Laurentides 1882.jpg|Down in the Laurentides 1882

File:Near the Close of a Stormy Day 1884.jpg|Near the Close of a Stormy Day 1884

File:Nut Gatherers in the Forest 1900.jpg|Nut Gatherers in the Forest 1900

File:The Flood Gate 1901.jpg|The Flood Gates 1901

File:Rushing Stream by Moonlight 1905.jpg|Rushing Stream by Moonlight 1905

File:Pink Bush 1906.jpg|Pink Bush 1906

File:Study for Red Oak 1917.jpg|Study for Red Oak 1917

File:Moonlight, Waning Winter 1924.jpg|Moonlight, Waning Winter 1924

File:Mountain River 1932.jpg|Mountain River 1932

</gallery>

References

Sources

Further reading

  • Homer Watson House & Gallery
  • Biography at Mount Allison University
  • Virtual Museum on Homer Watson
  • London Ontario Museum on Homer Watson
  • University of Waterloo Library Holdings on Homer Watson
  • Homer Watson fonds at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario