Bruce Heggtveit
(1917 - 2004)

Born in Maidstone, Saskatchewan, the son of Mr. & Mrs. Carl Olaf Heggtveit who had emigrated from Norway in the early 1900’s. From a young age Bruce did portraits and landscapes and after his family had moved to Ottawa he studied under Ernest Fosbery and Frank Hennessey. He was athletic as well and excelled in skiing at high school and went on to become a Canadian ski champion in 1938. Later his interest returned to painting and today he is known for his fine landscapes in oils and pastels of Quebec and Ontario and particularly his Gatineau Park hills north of Ottawa where he lived.

Viewing his 1958 exhibit at the Robertson Galleries the ‘Ottawa Citizen’ art critic, Carl Weiselberger noted “The results are such thoroughly pleasant landscapes as ‘Ottawa Valley’, ‘The Trapper’s Cabin’, and ‘Canadian fjord at Ellesmere Island’, ‘Indian summer’ in glowing colours, a fine scene ‘Near Thirty-One Mile Lake’, ’The Sugar Bush’ and ‘Fortune Lake.’ Mr. Heggtveit’s ‘Algonquin Landcape’ (and others) are handled in bright, lively, thick paints, with a surprising sense of air and atmosphere, perspective and spatial depth.”

His work was exhibited at the Den-Art Studios in Ottawa and other galleries. He appeared on the CBC television programme “Four for the Road” and in the 1970’s and became established as an important Canadian landscape painter.

Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume II”, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1979