Born in Tiflis, Russia, his mother died when he was very young. His father brought him to Canada in 1900 and they settled in Saskatchewan. They were “Independent” Doukhobors as distinguished from “Community” Doukhobors. The Loveroffs spent their first winter in an excavation in the west bank of the Saskatchewan River near Petrofka Bridge, twenty-five miles west of Rosthern. From 1903 to 1906 Fred Loveroff attended school at Moylan, Pennsylvania, under the auspices of the Society of Quakers. His father was a farmer and when Fred was old enough he secured his own homestead near Borden, Saskatchewan.
During the long winter nights on the homestead he began to dabble in watercolours probably to relieve the boredom and loneliness. It was one of these watercolours that Col. Perrett, Principal of the Normal School at Regina, saw and decided to interest D.A. Dunlop (Toronto mining magnate) in sponsoring the young man’s art education. In 1913 at the age of nineteen, Fred Loveroff enrolled in the Central Ontario School of Art where he studied for the next four years under G.A. Reid, J.W. Beatty, J.E.H. MacDonald and possibly W. Cruikshank. He received his A.O.C.A. in 1917. Soon his paintings were to be seen at exhibitions of the Ontario Society of Artists. His “A Winter Landscape” shown with this society was reproduced in the Canadian Magazine of December 1919 also his “Winter Landscape” exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy appeared in the Canadian Magazine of June 1920. In November of 1920 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy. During the relatively short period of his painting career, 1918-1934, he enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing that his paintings were being appreciated.
Describing his work in The Canadian Collector Peter Millard noted, “Loveroff’s paintings are best considered in two groups, firstly the finished studio paintings and secondly the little oil sketches, many of which were probably intended merely as preliminary studies. I have not been able to examine many pictures of the first kind, but those I have seen are crisp, strong landscapes whose chief delight is in their Impressionist colouring. Shadows, which at first sight seem merely darker in tone, on closer examination yield up rich and extraordinary colour… In addition to the more formal pictures, Loveroff has left behind him a large number of small oil sketches, now preserved in one collection in Saskatoon. Seldom dated and often unsigned, they apparently represent his entire painting career, brief as it was.”
It was during the Depression that the market for his paintings declined sharply, as did the market of just about every other commodity not directly connected with survival. Loveroff, it was thought, rather than making greater effort to sell his paintings (probably for a lot less than their worth) stowed them in an attic. It is also believed because the situation became hopeless, he departed for California in 1934 once again to make his living as a farmer. It is believed that he never took up his brushes again. He died in 1960 at the age of sixty-six after a rapidly failing health. In his early work he was influenced by J. W. Beatty then Maurice Cullen. Loveroff travelled through the territory between Winnipeg and Norway House with Indians by trail and canoe and many of his small sketches are of forest and lake areas while others include farm buildings, people in streets and city houses in winter. One of the highlights of his career no doubt was the acceptance of his painting “Snow on the Hillside” by the Leicester City Art Gallery, England, after the painting had been exhibited at the Wembley show of 1924. He is represented in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Hart House, U. of T.; Art Gallery of Ontario and elsewhere.
Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume II”, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1979
