The Dead Bird, circa 1890

Morris Gallery, Toronto Acquired by the present Private Collection, November, 1972

“Royal Canadian Academy of Arts”, Art Association of Montreal, Montreal, from 24 April 1890, no. 42 as “The Lark’s Death” “Royal Canadian Academy of Arts”, Toronto Art Gallery, from 6 March 1891, no. 63 “Canadian Classics”, Morris Gallery, Toronto, 21 October‒4 November 1972 “Collector’s Canada: Selections from a Toronto Private Collection”, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; travelling to Musée du Québec, Quebec City; Vancouver Art Gallery; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, 14 May 1988‒7 May 1989, no. 26 as The Dead Bird, circa 1890 “Art canadien: L’enfant et son univers|Canadian Art: A Child’s World”, Galerie Eric Klinkhoff, Montreal, 28 October‒11 November 2017, no. 14 “Our Children: Reflections of Childhood in Historical Canadian Art”, Varley Art Gallery, Markham, 13 April‒23 June 2019 as “The Dead Bird”, “circa” 1890

“Canadian Classics”, Morris Gallery, Toronto, 21 October‒4 November 1972, reproduced Dennis Reid, “Collector’s Canada: Selections from a Toronto Private Collection”, Toronto, 1988, no. 26, reproduced page 36

A painter of the social and political elite in Toronto and Montreal, Robert Harris is considered Canada’s most renowned historical portrait artist. Born in Wales in 1849, Harris grew up on his father’s farm before moving to Prince Edward Island in 1856. He developed an interest in art at a young age, often sketching images he saw in magazines. During a trip to Liverpool in 1867, Harris visited the local museum, where he independently learned anatomy and proportion by sketching from plaster casts. Already working as an artist, he decided to pursue formal artistic instruction in 1873 in Boston, London, and Paris. Harris quickly became known as the most important portrait artist in Canada following his commissioned painting The Fathers of Confederation dating to 1883. He painted portraits of more than two hundred major figures of his times, including Sir John A. MacDonald and Lord Aberdeen. Here, the artist has depicted a boy and a girl mourning the loss of a pet bird. Dressed in formal attire, they are likely the children of one of Harris’ Canadian elite clients. The majority of Harris’ mature career was spent in Montreal. A teacher at the Art Association of Montreal and founding member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1880, he was one of the first advocates for the distinctiveness of Canadian Art. As president of the RCA for thirteen years, Harris took on the mission of promoting young Canadian artists by making sure that they were represented in all the major exhibitions of the time.