George Henry Griffin (1898 - 1974) [Rocky Shore] Canadian Oil Painting

Listed Canadian Artist G.H. Griffin Oil Painting

[Rocky Shore]

11 1/2 x 13 7/8 inches (29 x 35.4 cm)

oil on board.

untitled & unsigned, [bearing estate signature on verso].

Framed. 16" x 18 1/2" (40.7 x 46.9 cm)

Provenance: The Estate of the Artist.

See Artists in Canada: A List of Artists' Files. National Gallery of Canada: 1999.

George Henry Griffin [1898-1974] was born at Uckfield, Sussex, and emigrated to Canada in 1911. In 1917 he enlisted with the Second Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force and served in France. After being wounded he was discharged in 1919. Upon his return to Canada he studied at the Ontario College of Art, and later at Central Technical School (under Owen Staples, Alfred Howel etc.). He also studied privately under painter Frederick S. Challener. In 1926 he went to Britain and took classes at the Slade School of Art, London. Griffin worked for various architects and made scale models, including the Montreal Sun Life Building, Hart House Soldiers’ Tower, and St. James Cathedral War Memorial, Toronto. He also worked closely with Laurence Barraud on Grove Park Lodge, Muskoka, the Wood Estate (Glendon College, York University), and Royal Alexandra Theatre. Griffin taught part-time at Central Technical School but when Western Technical opened, L.A.C. Panton asked him to join the staff full-time. Griffin became head of the Art Department in 1939 and remained there until retirement in 1963 (students included Harold Town, Walter Yarwood, Heather Cooper, Bud Fehly, Alan Fleming, Mac Houston). The artist exhibited extensively up to 1932 and showed at the National Gallery of Canada, Royal Canadian Academy, Ontario Society of Artists, Canadian National Exhibition, Robert Simpson Galleries, and Manoir Richelieu, Quebec. Primarily a landscape painter, he liked to sketch in the Spring and Fall in Caledon and Peel. His paintings are in the City of Toronto Archives, Windsor Art Gallery, and private collections in Ontario, Quebec, New York and Michigan.