Biography of John LITTLE

 

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Montreal, P.Q., he studied two years at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts under Dr. Arthur Lismer and Goodridge Roberts. Subsequently he went to New York where he attended the Art Students' League under Will Barnet and Frank J. Reilley. It was also there in 1949 that he worked as an assistant to Mr. Ray Bailley on the now defunct comic strip "Bruce Gentry". 

Returning to Montreal he became a draughtsman in his father's architectural firm (Luke & Little) in 1951. In 1953 he turned exclusively to painting.

He has done covers for Maclean's Magazine in which his great sense of humour blends with his artistic abilities to depict Canadians at work and play.

 

SUBJECT

His street scenes and paintings of old Montreal and Quebec City streets, houses and countryside won him wide acclaim. In 1957 the Montreal Gazette noted, "His vision is clear and his interpretation of his subjects is solid and literal. His buildings are solidly based, bear the marks of age and are recorded with a laudable attention to drawing. The last-mentioned quality apparently presents him with no problems. His figures have animation, there is a convincing sense of movement in the crowds and the impression of traffic congestion in narrow streets is capitally conveyed."

 

TECHNIQUES

The critic Dorothy Pfeiffer reviewing his work in 1964 noted, "Those bemoaning the seemingly ruthless demolition of hundreds of Montreal's gracious old-world homes and other buildings, the disappearance in the name of progress of various little private nooks and parks, and the often callous disposal of dignified stone pillars and amusing cornices will gain nostalgic pleasure from John Little's show, for he has dedicated his paintings to the preservation of such items for posterity. Yet so spirited and relaxed is his painting technique, that his work can in no manner today be labelled as merely documentary. He paints city streets ankle-deep in slush, where his not-quite-ripe olive green mixture carpets pavements with a mélange resembling Quebec limestone. He peoples his old streets and secluded sylvan sites with groups of today's spirited adults and children. Three important qualities it certainly contains: assurance, individuality and artistic honesty."

 

AWARDS

Little became an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1961.

 

COLLECTIONS

He is represented in the National Gallery of Canada; Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Sir George Williams University Collection of Art (now Concordia University), and many private collections.

 

Source: Colin S. MacDonald, « Little, John Geoffrey Caruthers » dans A dictionnary of Canadian Artists, Volume 4, Canadian Paperbacks, Ottawa, 1974, p. 871-872




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