Peter Haworth
(1889 - 1986) Canadian Group of Painters

Peter Haworth Biography
(1889 - 1986) Canadian Group of Painters

Born in Lancaster, England, he enlisted in the army during World War One and served with the Royal Flying Corps where he won the Distinguished Flying Cross. He left the army at the close of the war and turned to the study of art at the Royal College of Art, London, under Professor Sir W. Rothenstein and R. Anning Bell, R.A. He graduated with his A.R.C.A., awarded at by the University of London. Haworth was particularly interested in stained glass work and began working in this medium very early in his career.

He came to Canada in 1923 where he was appointed Director of Art at the Toronto Central Technical School. He also began to fill commissions for stained glass work in Toronto and other cities. One of these commissions was to design and execute 14 panels for the First Baptist Church, Ottawa, which were noted in 1929 by the ‘Year Book of the Arts in Canada’. By 1936 he had been elected President of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour and two years later had three of his watercolours exhibited in the important showing “A Century of Canadian Art” held at the Tate Gallery, London, England. In 1939 he became Instructor in Design and Drawing at the University of Toronto.

Then came the Second World War when many Canadian artists were called upon to record our nation’s effort; particularly the activities of the armed forces overseas and at home. Both Peter and his wife Bobs were commissioned by the Canadian Government to make records of the activities of the Services on the coast of British Columbia. Thirty-nine of their works were exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery which the Vancouver ‘Province’ noted during January of 1944, as follows, “Mindful of the picturesque and strong nature of the western landscape, and introducing even typical local touches such as totem poles, the artists have vigorously portrayed a region guarded by planes, guns and ships.”

His major contribution seems however to be with his stained glass work. In 1952 Melwyn Breen of the Toronto ‘Saturday Night’ described Haworth’s studio as follows, “We found Mr. Haworth in his study surrounded by the tools and materials of his work: samples of stained glass, stack of exquisite, jewel-like and meticulously painted sketches, huge ‘cartoons’, which are blueprints for a finished window … For the steps in the designs he has done for many churches in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton and elsewhere, Haworth and his assistant Gladys Allen first make a watercolour or tempera sketch of the finished window. These ’sketches’ are beautiful things in themselves having the glow and richness of miniature windows.”

In his painting, he held a solo show at Roberts Gallery, Toronto, in 1959. In 1961, another exhibition of Haworth’s semi-abstract paintings took place at Roberts Gallery, which Colin Sabiston described as follows, “Based on the substance of varied realities in Ontario, the Gaspé coast, the Caribbean Islands and Spain, his abstract stylizations show how respect for the laws of perspective enhances his type of composition. One of his devices is the juxtaposition of small plane units of varied shapes. Integrated with these in the over-all pattern of each painting are such realistic units as sailboats, woodland vistas, harbour, mountain, village and city scenes. Colour patterns conform with design, and their integration achieves the effects of greater depth and distance, both in brilliant sunshine and the deeper tones of dusk.”

Peter Haworth retired from teaching but continued to paint and create works of art as did his wife. They lived in Toronto, Ontario.

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