Mary Riter Hamilton
(1873 - 1954)

M.R. Hamilton Biography
(1873 - 1954)

Born at Teeswater, Ontario, she was educated there and married at the age of 18. She moved with her husband to Port Arthur, Ontario, but in 1896 her husband died. It was then that she decided to become a professional painter. Earlier she had visited Toronto in the summer and had taken some instruction under Mr. and Mrs. G.A. Reid, and at another time under Wyly Grier. She travelled to Germany with friends where she studied for three months under Franz Skarbina in Berlin. It was Skarbina who led her into colour. In the succeeding summers she stayed in Italy, Holland, and finally Paris where she studied portrait painting under J. Blanche at the Vittie Academy also drawing under Mereon and Gervais. She attended private classes in painting as well from Castaluchi.

In 1905 two of her watercolours were hung at the Paris Salon. Invariably she consulted Gervais in choosing her entries for the annual exhibit, and her paintings continued to be shown there with the exception of the year she spent at Winnipeg. In Winnipeg she had a large class of pupils but she wanted further study and travel and returned to Europe. There she visited Florence, Berlin, Vienna, Paris and spent four months studying interior painting in Holland. She returned to Canada in 1911 and held a showing of nearly 150 paintings in Toronto where they were well received. Describing them Florence Deacon noted “The first impression of Hamilton’s work as seen in her Canadian exhibition of nearly 150 pictures is of splendid colouring; originality in composition and subjects and of dignity and poetry in their handling.” Deacon further related how the artist worked in oils on dull days and in watercolours on brighter days. Around 1913 she did a number of pastel portraits of Indians which were later exhibited in Paris. She also painted scenes of the Rockies which included views at Banff, Lake Louise, Emerald Lake and elsewhere.

In 1912 she painted portraits of B.C.’s lieutenant governors which now hang at Government House, Victoria. In 1919 she went to Europe to paint the battlefields of France and Belgium where Canadian soldiers had fought and died. She completed 227 canvases and was invited by the French government to exhibit those scenes of French battlefields in the foyer of the Grand Opera House in Paris in 1918. Although she was later offered a sum of money by the San Francisco Art Gallery for the battlefield scenes she gave them to the Canadian Archives in Ottawa.

She lived in Victoria, B.C. for many years where she painted scenes and portraits. Tragically she lost her sight in 1948. In March of 1952 an exhibition of her paintings was held in the Vancouver Art Gallery. She died in Vancouver, B.C. in 1954 where she had spent her last days. A memorial exhibition of her work was held at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in November of 1959.

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