Herbert Sidney Palmer (Herbert Sydney Palmer)

1881-1970

Herbert Sidney Palmer was born in Toronto, Ontario. He studied at the Ontario School of Art and Design under Frederick S. Challener and J.W. Beatty. In his younger years, he worked for a lithography firm and sang in the Mendelssohn Choir. He later became a full-time painter with his studio in the rear of his home on St. Clements Avenue, Toronto.

When he was twenty-three, he exhibited for the first time with the Ontario Society of Artists and was elected a member five years later (1909). The following year, he became a founding member of the Toronto Arts & Letters Club. By 1915, Palmer was elected an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy and was later made a member in 1934.

Although Palmer loved singing, he spent more and more of his time painting and working at various tasks of the art societies. In 1919, he became Secretary of the Ontario Society of Artists and held that position for the next forty years. Starting in 1926, Palmer was also curator of the Fine Art Department of the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto and held that position until 1941. As a result, he acquired an almost encyclopaedic knowledge on Canadian artists.

Palmer was a prolific painter and travelled widely in Canada to seek out his subjects but found many of his subjects in Ontario. Many of his sketches were painted on panels, while his larger paintings were painted on canvas and canvas board. Over the years, Palmer exhibited at the T. Eaton Company Fine Arts Gallery in Toronto and Montreal, and held 25 consecutive shows that were all well met by the art critics and the public.

In 1960, Palmer was awarded the first Baxter Art Foundation Award for his years of devoted effort to the work of the Ontario Society of Artists, The Royal Canadian Academy and other professional groups. Palmer died in Toronto at the age of 90.

Collections:

- National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
- McMichael Canadian Art Collection (Kleinburg, ON)
- Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, ON)
- Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, ON)
- Art Gallery of Hamilton (Hamilton, ON)
- Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (Victoria, BC)
- The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, ON)
- Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC)
- Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery (Owen Sound, ON)
- Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa, ON)
- University of Toronto (Toronto, ON)

Affiliations:

- Ontario Society of Artists (1909)
- Arts and Letters Club, Founding member (1910), Honorary lifetime member (1956)
- Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy (1915)
- Royal Canadian Academy (1934)