Arthur Watkins Crisp (1881 - 1974)
About the Artist:
Arthur Watkins Crisp, painter, muralist, designer was born in Hamilton in 1881. He studied at the Hamilton Art School under John Ireland and John S. Gordon from 1898 to 1890. Shortly thereafter he left for New York and the Art Students' League where he continued studying for the next three years. Crisp executed numerous mural decorations for theatres, schools, hotels, private homes and office buildings in New York, as well as in Trenton, New Jersey, and Elmira, New York.
He was commissioned to paint British and Canadian recruiting on the Boston Common in 1918 for the Canadian War Memorials and six murals for the Reading Room of the new House of Commons in Ottawa in 1923. In 1933 he did a mural of The History of the Means of Transportation for the old head office of the Bank of Commerce in Toronto. Crisp did many murals for private homes and businesses, these were rich in colour, vivacious and showed an influence of Persian and Chinese art, while those for public buildings had a formality and restraint and reflected his interest in the art of the Italian Renaissance.
Crisp retired to Biddeford, Maine, in 1956 and gave a large collection of his work to the Art Gallery of Hamilton in 1963.
The Canadian Encyclopedia
About the Painting:
oil on canvas
In the early 1920's, the Reading Room in the House of Commons, "received an elaborate classical treatment recalling the dignity and stateliness of the English Palladian style. Architect John A. Pearson paid a great deal of attention to the Reading Room's interior finishing, hiring the famous mural painter, Arthur Crisp, to produce seventeen canvases for the new room. This choice of decoration reflected the great interest in mural art in Canada after 1900.
When the panels were installed, critics described them as fine specimens of mural art, typical of Crisp's bold and colourful style. Toronto Saturday Night published photographic reproductions of the paintings, and commented on their artistic qualities and sublime effect on the room's interior decoration.
The most prominent murals are located on the south and north walls. Their appropriate themes, warm colours and imposing compositions play a key role in creating the atmosphere of the room. Two panels, centred on the south and north walls, celebrate the art of printing. Four other sizeable paintings, located at the corners of the south and north walls, portray the regional economic development of Canada in the 1920s."
House of Commons Heritage Collection
