Robert R. Whale

[1] In 1852, Whale and his family emigrated to Canada, settling near Brantford, Ontario in Burford .

[2][3] Whale was a prolific painter, supporting himself and his family through the sale of his artwork—a challenging task in that time and place.

[4] He exhibited with the Ontario Society of Artists and with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts beginning in 1881.

[1] Whale's portraits of local inhabitants show the influence of Joshua Reynolds, often posing the sitter looking directly out of the frame—the figure highlighted against a shadowed background.

[2] Though his landscapes use elements familiar from the previous century in Europe—the distant vista framed by nearby trees, the use of small human figures in the middle distance to lead the viewer into the composition—his subject matter was completely rooted in his immediate surroundings.