Marmaduke Matthews
(1837 – 1913)
Marmaduke Matthews (1837–1913) was an English-Canadian painter, best known for his landscape paintings and pivotal role in the development of Canadian art. Born in Barcheston, Warwickshire, England, Matthews studied watercolour painting at Oxford before moving to Toronto, Canada, in 1860 to pursue a career as a painter.
In Canada, Matthews made a significant contribution to the depiction of the Canadian wilderness. He was hired by the Canadian Pacific Railway to paint the prairies and Rocky Mountains, working for William van Horne, then-president of the railway. Matthews made several cross-country trips to Canada’s west, including in 1887, 1889, and 1892, where he famously sketched landscapes from the cowcatcher of a locomotive.
Matthews was a founding member of both the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and is regarded as one of the prominent watercolour painters of his time. In Toronto, he is also remembered for creating Wychwood Park in 1874—a plot of land where he once lived that later became a celebrated artists’ community and is now a high-income neighbourhood located northwest of downtown Toronto.
Marmaduke Matthews passed away in Toronto on September 24, 1913. His works are included in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery.
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