Frederick Challener

Challener was born in Whetstone, Middlesex, England.[2] He moved with his family to Canada in 1870, returned to England in 1876 to attend school, then came back to Canada in 1883. He worked as an office boy for a business firm and drew individuals he saw from a window. Artist and photographer, John Arthur Fraser, of the Notman and Fraser firm, recognized his talent and paid for him to attend the Ontario School of Art (from 1984 to 1886) at night. Afterwards, Challener studied privately with George Agnew Reid while working for the Toronto Lithographing Company. Later, he became a newspaper artist.[3]

After travelling through Europe and the Middle East in 1898-99, Challener began working as a muralist and participated in the decoration of the recently completed Toronto City Hall. He created murals for hotels, such as Fort Rouillé in Toronto's King Edward Hotel (1900) and Winnipeg's Royal Alexandra Hotel (1906-1912); theatres, including the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto (1906); and office buildings, restaurants , and passenger boats.[4] For Parkwood, the home of Colonel Robert Samuel McLaughlin, he did panels for McLaughlin's office and mural paintings (1924-6) for the residence which show members of the McLaughlin family, among them artist Isabel McLaughlin as a young woman.[3]

In 1891, Challener first exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and he showed with the Academy almost every year thereafter until 1948.[5] He was elected to full membership in 1899. The Montreal Gazette wrote of him on April 19 of that year that his work entitles him to a place among the foremost of Canadian artists since it is, in the main, "serious and sincere".

A Singing Lesson, 1900

In 1900, the work he showed at the Royal Canadian Academy, A Singing Lesson (1900; also shown in the Art Association of Montreal and in the Rochester Art Club Annual Exhibition in 1902) was singled out for praise. In reviews published in 1900, the Ottawa Citizen wrote that the picture, "showing a young lady, clad in a yellow gown, standing before a piano, expressed, gracefully, an abundance of sentiment",[6] while the Ottawa Evening Journal wrote that the painting was "fresh, daring, and finished" and called Challener "one of Canada’s most promising and original artists."[7]

At the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo he was awarded a bronze medal and in 1904, he received an award at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, at St. Louis. He received the bronze medal at the Pan American Exhibition for his painting The Workers of the Fields which he deposited in the Royal Canadian Academy diploma collection in the National Gallery of Canada.[3]

He worked in Toronto, but moved to Conestoga, Ontario near Waterloo, in 1907, to Winnipeg from 1913 to 1916, then back to Toronto.[8]

Canada's Grand Armada, 1919

During WWI, Challener worked as a painter for the Canadian War Memorials Department.[3] His painting "Canada's Grand Armada" depicts the first contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force sailing from the Gaspé in Quebec to Britain in 1914. The painting is held in the Canadian War Museum collection.[9]

From 1921-24, he taught at Central Technical School, Toronto, and from 1927 to 1952, he taught at the Ontario School of Art.[3][8] During these years, he accumulated archival material on Canadian art which today is in the Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.[10]

Challener died in Toronto on September 30, 1959, at the age of 90.[11]