G2K - Galerie 2000

Frederick Arthur Verner was an artist born in Sheridan, Ontario in 1836. Although he spent most of his life in England, he frequently returned back home to Canada to work. When he was twenty years old he studied at the Heatherly Academy in London (1856-1860). While in Western Europe, he joined the Garibaldi Army and fought with the Yorkshire Militia and the British Legion in 1860 and 1861.

The following year he returned to Canada where he worked as a photograph colorist, drawing obsessively on the side. While working in the field, he developed a desire to be a photographer himself; he was most intrigued with capturing images of the Ojibway people. Over the next eighteen years he remained in Canada, working, drawing and painting. In 1880, it was back to London for F.A. Verner.

Although he lived in London, he sporadically traveled to Canada, primarily to paint in the North West, working from scenes of life and nature. He loved the Native people and the freedom of the animals they shared their lives with. He often traveled down to Toronto, where he exhibited his work with the Ontario Society of Artists, which he co-founded in 1872.

Inspired by the work of Paul Kane, Frederick Arthur Verner's paintings are warm, yet haunting and suggestive. His pieces remind us of a world that no longer exists: our world before invasion and industrialization. His paintings have earned him the honor of being inducted in the Royal Canadian Academy in 1893, solidifying Verner as a great Canadian Master Painter. He passed away in London in 1928.