HISTORIC WEST END ARTISTS

by Gary Sim
(click on images to enlarge)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is abstracted from a presentation made by Gary Sim on January 10 to the West End Senior’s Network’s Living Library program. A shorter version was published in the Vancouver Historical Society’s February Newsletter.

Many visual artists have lived and worked in the West End residential neighbourhood of Vancouver, and artists who lived elsewhere came to paint local scenes. The 1930s were an artistically important time for the West End. The following is a brief summary.

**School Days cover by SP Judge.** *(GK Sim collection)*

Spencer Perceval Judge was an early Vancouver artist, arriving from England with his family in 1903. He did commercial artwork, including a 1906 tourist brochure for Vancouver. He was a founding member of the B.C. Society of Fine Arts in 1908, and later became Art Supervisor for the Vancouver School Board (VSB). He drew the original cover design for School Days magazine, published by the VSB from 1919 to 1930, and provided numerous illustrations for articles.

The Vancouver Art Gallery opened in 1931 at 1145 West Georgia Street, and in 1932 began the annual B.C. Artists’ exhibitions that continued to 1968. In 1933, the B.C. College of Arts Ltd. was opened at 1233 W. Georgia by Frederick Horsman Varley (1881 – 1969, Group of Seven), J.W.G. (Jock) Macdonald (1897 – 1960, Canadian Group of Painters), and Harold Tauber (1900 – 1975), a Viennese architect and stage designer. Varley and Macdonald had been hired at the Vancouver art school in 1926, but left in June 1933, protesting perceived unjust pay cuts due to the depression.

Assistant Instructors were Vera Weatherbie (1909 – 1977), Beatrice Lennie (1904 – 1987), and Margaret Williams (1902 – 1981). These three women were founding students at the Vancouver art school in 1925, and in the first graduating class. Lennie was sculptor Charles Marega’s first female graduating student.

The progressive B.C. College of Arts had an extensive range of courses, but only existed for two years. Special classes included instruction for children, landscape painting, stage craft, and choreographic dancing. One of the star students was Alec Dalgleish (1907 – 1934), who unfortunately died while attempting to climb Mt. Waddington.

Nearby, a house at 1079 Bute Street was known as Parakontas, and had seven or eight studios in it. From 1929 to 1934 studios were rented by Varley, Macdonald, Rev. Sir A.N. St. John Mildmay (1865 – 1955), Vera Weatherbie, Maud Sherman (1900 – 1976), Maisie Robertson (1910 – 1998), Norma Park (1908 – 2001), Lilias Farley (1907 – 1989), and Baron Plato Cornelius von Ustinov (1903 – 1990, actor Peter Ustinov’s uncle).

**Parakontas studio c1932: Maisie Robertson, Jessie Innes, Maud Sherman, Edith Carter, Norma Park.** *(Emily Carr University Library & Archives)*

The Sylvia Court (now Hotel Sylvia) held an exhibition of West End artists in February 1933 that included most of those named above plus Julius Griffiths Jr. (later a Canadian spy), H. Faulkner Smith, Statira Frame, and others.

Sculptor Charles Marega (1871 – 1939) won commissions for numerous public art projects in Downtown and the West End, including the Harding Memorial, Joe Fortes fountain, Oppenheimer Memorial, and the King George VII fountain at the courthouse on Georgia Street. He also created the lions for the Lions Gate bridge, and Captains Burrard and Vancouver for the Burrard Street bridge. He was a founding instructor at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Art in 1925 (now Emily Carr University).

Vanderpant Studios was opened by pictorial photographer John Vanderpant (1884 – 1939) at 1216 Robson Street, holding art exhibitions and hosting “musicales”. The Art Emporium, founded in 1897, moved to 1103 Robson Street, where artist Harry Hood (1876 – 1956) was the proprietor from 1926 to 1948. The gallery hosted art exhibitions, and Hood painted many scenes of the West End.

**“False Creek”, limited edition relief print by Ross Lort - 1933** *(City of Vancouver Archives)*

Ross Lort (1889 – 1968), an early B.C. architect and former partner of Samuel Maclure, lived at 911 Nicola Street from 1927 to 1942. He published All Creatures Great and Small in 1931. He was President of the B.C. Society of Fine Arts (BCSFA) from 1945 to 1948, and designed the art gallery expansion that opened in 1951. Otto Schellenberger (1896 – 1970), later known as Paul Rand, lived at 1225 Barclay Street. He was President of the BCSFA from 1948 to 1950. Margaret Wake (1867 – 1930) lived and worked at 1834 Barclay Street, one of the few artists to own her own home. Charles Henry Rawson (1870 – 1948) worked as a commercial artist and painted many scenes around Stanley Park, as well as making wood engravings.

Jackie Hooper Hugo (1927 - ) helped with family finances during the depression by salvaging logs in False Creek with a rowboat and selling them to a man called Barnacle Bill, who lived on his boat called “The Hell You Say.” She graduated from King George High School in 1944, was a truck driver for the Canadian Women’s Army Corps in World War Two, then attended art school after the war. After recovering from mental illness she won the “Courage to Come Back” award in 2014. That included a $1,000,000 prize, which she donated to Vancouver Coastal Health.

**Lion by Charles Marega.** *(Gary Sim Photo)*

David Jensen (1945 – ) was another artistic King George graduate. He provided illustrations for the 1963 issue of The Georgian, the King George school annual, and became a well-known architectural interiors and exhibit designer, including work on the Squamish-Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler.

Donald Flather (1903 – 1990) was born in England and came to Canada in 1911 with his family. He graduated from UBC and became a teacher. He was appointed as Vice-Principal at King George High School in 1951. He was also a well-known artist who created many large canvases of coast and mountain scenes of British Columbia.

Greta Dale (1929 – 1977) was known for her architectural artwork. An apartment building at 2033 Comox Street known as The White House has her sgraffito work on the front of the building. Lionel and Patricia Thomas designed and constructed two large sculptures/water fountains for Beach Towers, which still exist although they are in poor condition. They also designed the interior of the monkey house in Stanley Park, and the illuminated sculpture Symbols of the Cunieform on the exterior of the former public library at Burrard and Robson.

**“Season’s Greetings” (Brockton Point with lighthouse keeper’s house), Charles Henry Rawson - c1940.** *(Private Collection)*

Gerhardt Class (1924 – 1997) was a German sculptor who arrived in Vancouver in 1951. He designed the memorial sundial on Beach Ave. at Denman in the West End, as well as exterior sculptures and lobby artwork for East Asiatic House at 1201 West Pender Street, a project commissioned by the Prince of Denmark.

Robert Russell Reid (1927 – 2022) was from Medicine Hat, Alberta, and moved to Vancouver in the 1940s. He was an incredibly talented book designer, graphic artist, and typographer. His first publication was The Nineteenth Hole, issued by his own Mashie-Niblick Press in 1948. He worked with Haida artist William (Bill) Reid on projects that included British Columbia – A Centennial Anthology in 1958. The book was illustrated throughout with work by B.C. artists. The Alcuin Society created the Robert R. Reid Award in his honor in 2007, given for Lifetime Achievement in the Book Arts in Canada, Robert himself receiving the first medal. He was living in Sunset Towers on Barclay Street, where he chose to die from MAID.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Sim is an artist, lecturer, researcher, volunteer, and writer. He retired as a senior architectural construction administrator in 2019. He is author of the award-winning website British Columbia Artists, a compilation of information on more than 20,000 visual artists of B.C. In 2013 he published Railway Rock Gang, an illustrated memoir of his work on the BC RAIL rock gangs. He has lived in the West End for the past 33 years.
His website, which includes an extensive listing of B.C. artists past and present is here.

The West End Journal thanks the Vancouver Historical Society and the author for permission to reproduce this article. Visit their website here.