PROVENANCE
Collection of W.P. Weston, Vancouver
By descent to the present Private Collection, British Columbia

Robert Samuel Alexander graduated from the Vancouver School of Art in 1947. A member of the B.C. Society of Fine Arts and the Royal Canadian Academy, he was commissioned to paint several important mural commissions around Vancouver. Also a portrait specialist, this is one of two portraits Alexander painted of W.P. Weston. At the time of the sitting, Weston would have been considered a towering figure in the Vancouver art community.

W.P. Weston was an important early figure in sowing the seeds for Vancouver’s art scene. Having arrived in Vancouver in 1909 from of London, England, Weston was fascinated with the power of the local landscape. While never officially a staff member of the Vancouver School of Design and Decorative Art, Weston was a leading figure in art education in Vancouver before the establishment of the VSDAA, and had professional and social ties with members of the school. He gave a lecture titled The Place of Art in Education as early as 1917 at the Vancouver Institute, and held the position of Art Master at King Edward High School from 1914 until 1946. In 1925 he, along with VSDAA director Charles H. Scott and Spencer Percival Judge, published the Manual of Drawing and Design for Vancouver's Elementary and High Schools curriculums.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars