Technique: Oil
1912-1972
The painter Lionel Fielding Downes was born on April 15, 1900, in Lancashire, in the northwest of England. His parents moved to Canada in 1912 and finally settled in the Quebec region, a region that the young Downes particularly liked.
After studying at the Federal School of Design in Minneapolis, the artist continued his academic career at the Winnipeg Fine Arts School (1919-1923), under the direction of Frank H. Johnston of the well-known Group of Seven. From 1924 to 1927 , the artist then attended the Art Institute of Chicago, then from 1951 to 1952, the New York Arts Students League, directed by Louis Bouché.
At the same time, from 1934 to 1936, he painted with Arthur Lismer arc, of the Group of Seven, then with FS Coburn arc also. He enjoyed great popularity in Canada in the 1960s and until his death in 1972.
Lionel Fielding Downes has exhibited at the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, at the Beaverbrook National Gallery in Fredericton, NB, at the National Gallery of Israel in Tel Aviv, at the Arts Students League in New York , at the Palette and Chisel Club in Chicago, as well as in Baltimore, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and dozens of times in Montreal and Quebec. He died on December 28, 1972, in Sainte-Foy, Quebec.
Since then, due to inheritance problems, his paintings have become extremely rare. This exceptional painter used mediums such as charcoal, pencil, paint and watercolor. Some of his works are currently at the National Gallery of Canada, Ontario and Montreal.