John David Kelly (artist)

John David Kelly (October 15, 1862 – December   27, 1958)[1] who signed his work J. D. Kelly was an "enormously popular"[2] painter, printmaker and artist-illustrator known for the series of calendar illustrations he did for the Confederation Life Association, depicting great moments in Canadian history.

[2] Keley was born at Gore's Landing, Ontario on the south shore of Rice Lake, near Peterborough.

[3] In 1878, he enrolled at the Ontario School of Art, later known as OCAD, studying with Marmaduke Matthews, John Arthur Fraser and Henri Perré, becoming a gold medalist in 1881[4] and graduating in 1882.

[5] From 1882 to 1885, he worked for the Grip Lithographing firm, then joined the Toronto Lithographing Company, the largest and most advanced lithography firm in the city (it became Rolph-Clark-Stone Ltd),[6][7] and spent 70 years with the company as its premier calendar artist, retiring in 1955.

[4] His series of historical paintings are in the collection of Confederation Life (28 works) (now Rogers Communications),[a] the Art Gallery of Ontario,[5] the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal,[15] the Toronto Public Library[16] and Library and Archives Canada which has Push On, brave York volunteers (1896) and also has his fonds.