David Milne (artist)
Encyclopedia
David Milne, was a Canadian
painter
, printmaker, and writer
.
village of Burgoyne (near Paisley
) in 1882. He was the last of 10 children born to Scottish
immigrant parents. His early education was in Paisley, followed by high school in Walkerton
; he performed well in school and soon after graduated began teaching in a country school near Paisley. During 1902 and 1903 he studied art through correspondence, eventually deciding to move to New York City
in 1903 at the age of 21.
In New York, he spent two years (and a third year of night school) studying at the Art Students League
. He had five paintings exhibited in the Armory Show
of 1913, and he was also represented by the N. E. Montross Gallery (same as ‘The Eight
’ or Ashcan School
artists). In 1912, he married Frances May (known as Patsy) and later they moved to Boston Corners, a small hamlet where Milne painted with oils and watercolours. Milne left Boston Corners in 1917 for basic training in Toronto for World War I. He was stationed in Quebec and then quarantined in England for a month, during which time World War I ended. Because of his background as an artist, he was asked to complete paintings and drawings as a war artist. Milne produced artworks of battlefields in France and Belgium as well as of soldiers in Kinmel Park Camp in England.
Between the years of 1919 and 1929, Milne lived in Boston Corners and the surrounding areas, focusing his artistic work on the landscape. In 1929, Milne returned to Canada to paint in Temagami, Weston and Palgrave
. He separated from his wife in 1933, moved to Port Severn, Ontario and sold many of his paintings to prominent art patrons Vincent Massey
and Alice Massey
. In the late 1930s, Milne settled down in Uxbridge
, Ontario with Kathleen Pavey, a nurse, and the two had a son (also David) in 1941. During the later years of his life, Milne worked again in watercolours, and changed his subject matter to more whimsical, fantasy and childlike inspirations. He continued to travel to Algonquin Park and Baptiste Lake to paint the Canadian landscape.
On November 14, 1952, Milne had a stroke. Over the next year he continued to suffer from small strokes and died in the hospital in Bancroft
, Ontario on December 26, 1953. The prestigious American art critic Clement Greenberg
described Milne as one of the three greatest North American artists of his generation. Although he was overshadowed by the Group of Seven during his early career, David Milne is now recognized as one of Canada’s foremost artists. After his death, the National Gallery of Canada
organized a retrospective of his work (1955 – 56), and then another retrospective was shown in Toronto at Hart House in 1962. In 2005, an exhibit of Milne’s watercolours traveled from the British Museum
to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York and then finally to the Art Gallery of Ontario
.
, watercolour and drypoint
printmaking. Like the Group of Seven
, Milne primarily chose landscape as his subject matter; however, his approach to this subject was considerably less "impressionistic" than the Group’s and had a more "modernist" feel. Milne was influenced in part by the European and American modernists exhibited through Alfred Stieglitz
’s gallery, 291. He also pushed himself to develop his own particular style that was stark yet beautiful and very expressively realized.
Milne chose simple, ordinary subjects which he imbued with dignity and significance. His landscapes and still lifes reveal a decorative sense and fluidity of touch. His frequent use of black in his paintings is a characteristic trait. Often one type of object, trees for example, would be depicted in black in one part of the image and white in another creating an intriguing internal tension in the work. For Milne, white was an extension of the palette – a way to express the stillness of the landscape he was viewing. In both his watercolour and oil painting techniques, Milne was experimental in his approach. He paid careful attention to composition but also to the qualities of line, colour and texture that were revealed in his work.
James Clark, a friend, supporter and patron of Milne’s, sent him an etching press while he was at Boston Corners in 1926, and Milne was able to experiment with printmaking in new and unusual ways. He developed a method of making colour drypoints, printing one colour over another with different plates for each. Milne had first tried etching and drypoint while he was a student at the Art Students’ League and his idea of colour drypoint was unprecedented, as the tradition was to only use black and the white of the paper. He had thought of creating colour drypoints years before, but lacked the equipment to carry through his experiments, as the printmaking technique requires metal plates which are scratched or etched into, then inked, wiped and finally run through a printing press. It took many months for Milne to achieve the sparsely layered look that he envisioned with his prints, but the results were very compelling.
In his later years Milne began to experiment with content far removed from the simple, albeit highly original, landscapes that make up the better part of his oeuvre. Although he had espoused a pure aestheticism in his younger years (insisting that a painting's content was merely secondary) he went on to produce a number of works that invite an allegorical interpretation. The canvas left on his easel at the time of his death showed a group of angels childishly amusing themselves with cosmetics purchased from a wandering salesman.
David B. Milne, ‘Feeling in Painting,’ 1948
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, printmaker, and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
.
Biography
David Milne was born in the southwestern OntarioOntario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
village of Burgoyne (near Paisley
Paisley, Ontario
Paisley is now an unincorporated community, a village in the Municipality of Arran-Elderslie in Bruce County, Ontario, Canada. Paisley is defined by its position at the confluence of the Saugeen River and the Teeswater River, and at the junction of Bruce Roads 1, 11, and 3.-History:Paisley began,...
) in 1882. He was the last of 10 children born to Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
immigrant parents. His early education was in Paisley, followed by high school in Walkerton
Walkerton, Ontario
Walkerton is a community in the Canadian province of Ontario, located within and governed by the municipality of Brockton. It is the site of Brockton's municipal offices and the county seat of Bruce County...
; he performed well in school and soon after graduated began teaching in a country school near Paisley. During 1902 and 1903 he studied art through correspondence, eventually deciding to move to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1903 at the age of 21.
In New York, he spent two years (and a third year of night school) studying at the Art Students League
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
. He had five paintings exhibited in the Armory Show
Armory Show
Many exhibitions have been held in the vast spaces of U.S. National Guard armories, but the Armory Show refers to the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art that was organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors...
of 1913, and he was also represented by the N. E. Montross Gallery (same as ‘The Eight
The Eight
The Eight may refer to:*Ashcan School, an American school of painters*The Eight , a Hungarian art movement*The Eight ...
’ or Ashcan School
Ashcan School
The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, is defined as a realist artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States during the early twentieth century, best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York's poorer neighborhoods. The movement grew out of a group...
artists). In 1912, he married Frances May (known as Patsy) and later they moved to Boston Corners, a small hamlet where Milne painted with oils and watercolours. Milne left Boston Corners in 1917 for basic training in Toronto for World War I. He was stationed in Quebec and then quarantined in England for a month, during which time World War I ended. Because of his background as an artist, he was asked to complete paintings and drawings as a war artist. Milne produced artworks of battlefields in France and Belgium as well as of soldiers in Kinmel Park Camp in England.
Between the years of 1919 and 1929, Milne lived in Boston Corners and the surrounding areas, focusing his artistic work on the landscape. In 1929, Milne returned to Canada to paint in Temagami, Weston and Palgrave
Palgrave
- Companies :*Palgrave Macmillan, an academic publishing company[The Palgrave Society], studying the history and genealogy of families with the surname Palgrave or any of its many variants.- People :*John Palsgrave - Companies :*Palgrave Macmillan, an academic publishing company[The Palgrave...
. He separated from his wife in 1933, moved to Port Severn, Ontario and sold many of his paintings to prominent art patrons Vincent Massey
Vincent Massey
Charles Vincent Massey was a Canadian lawyer and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada, the 18th since Canadian Confederation....
and Alice Massey
Alice Massey
Alice Parkin Massey was a Canadian philanthropist and the wife of Vincent Massey, who became Governor General of Canada shortly after Alice Massey's death....
. In the late 1930s, Milne settled down in Uxbridge
Uxbridge
Uxbridge is a large town located in north west London, England and is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. It forms part of the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is located west-northwest of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres...
, Ontario with Kathleen Pavey, a nurse, and the two had a son (also David) in 1941. During the later years of his life, Milne worked again in watercolours, and changed his subject matter to more whimsical, fantasy and childlike inspirations. He continued to travel to Algonquin Park and Baptiste Lake to paint the Canadian landscape.
On November 14, 1952, Milne had a stroke. Over the next year he continued to suffer from small strokes and died in the hospital in Bancroft
Bancroft
-People:*The Bancroft family, previous owners of Dow Jones & Company*Aaron Bancroft , Colonial American clergyman and Revolutionary War soldier*Ann Bancroft -People:*The Bancroft family, previous owners of Dow Jones & Company*Aaron Bancroft (1755-1839), Colonial American clergyman and Revolutionary...
, Ontario on December 26, 1953. The prestigious American art critic Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg was an American essayist known mainly as an influential visual art critic closely associated with American Modern art of the mid-20th century...
described Milne as one of the three greatest North American artists of his generation. Although he was overshadowed by the Group of Seven during his early career, David Milne is now recognized as one of Canada’s foremost artists. After his death, the National Gallery of Canada
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
organized a retrospective of his work (1955 – 56), and then another retrospective was shown in Toronto at Hart House in 1962. In 2005, an exhibit of Milne’s watercolours traveled from the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in New York and then finally to the Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Gallery of Ontario
Under the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...
.
Art and Technique
David Milne worked predominantly in oil paintOil paint
Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the...
, watercolour and drypoint
Drypoint
Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. Traditionally the plate was copper, but now acetate, zinc, or plexiglas are also commonly used...
printmaking. Like the Group of Seven
Group of Seven (artists)
The Group of Seven, sometimes known as the Algonquin school, were a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920-1933, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael , Lawren Harris , A. Y. Jackson , Franz Johnston , Arthur Lismer , J. E. H. MacDonald , and Frederick Varley...
, Milne primarily chose landscape as his subject matter; however, his approach to this subject was considerably less "impressionistic" than the Group’s and had a more "modernist" feel. Milne was influenced in part by the European and American modernists exhibited through Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...
’s gallery, 291. He also pushed himself to develop his own particular style that was stark yet beautiful and very expressively realized.
Milne chose simple, ordinary subjects which he imbued with dignity and significance. His landscapes and still lifes reveal a decorative sense and fluidity of touch. His frequent use of black in his paintings is a characteristic trait. Often one type of object, trees for example, would be depicted in black in one part of the image and white in another creating an intriguing internal tension in the work. For Milne, white was an extension of the palette – a way to express the stillness of the landscape he was viewing. In both his watercolour and oil painting techniques, Milne was experimental in his approach. He paid careful attention to composition but also to the qualities of line, colour and texture that were revealed in his work.
James Clark, a friend, supporter and patron of Milne’s, sent him an etching press while he was at Boston Corners in 1926, and Milne was able to experiment with printmaking in new and unusual ways. He developed a method of making colour drypoints, printing one colour over another with different plates for each. Milne had first tried etching and drypoint while he was a student at the Art Students’ League and his idea of colour drypoint was unprecedented, as the tradition was to only use black and the white of the paper. He had thought of creating colour drypoints years before, but lacked the equipment to carry through his experiments, as the printmaking technique requires metal plates which are scratched or etched into, then inked, wiped and finally run through a printing press. It took many months for Milne to achieve the sparsely layered look that he envisioned with his prints, but the results were very compelling.
In his later years Milne began to experiment with content far removed from the simple, albeit highly original, landscapes that make up the better part of his oeuvre. Although he had espoused a pure aestheticism in his younger years (insisting that a painting's content was merely secondary) he went on to produce a number of works that invite an allegorical interpretation. The canvas left on his easel at the time of his death showed a group of angels childishly amusing themselves with cosmetics purchased from a wandering salesman.
In His Own Words
“Feeling is the power that drives art. There doesn’t seem to be a more understandable word for it, though there are others that give something of the idea: aesthetic emotion, quickening, bringing to life. Or call it love; not love of man or woman or home or country or any material thing, but love without an object – intransitive love.”David B. Milne, ‘Feeling in Painting,’ 1948