George Adrian Cuthbertson

(born in 1898 in Toronto, Ontario, died in 1969 in Thurso, Quebec) was a Canadian artist, researcher, and author.

Early life and training

He studied at the Toronto Model School, the University of Toronto, and the Westmount Academy in Montreal, Quebec. He studied with John David Kelly in Toronto, Ontario and with William Brymner at the Art Association of Montreal, Quebec. At 13, he worked in the summer on a steamer as an able bodied seaman in Montreal. He entered the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario in 1914, but left after one year.

Military service

At 17, he joined the Dover Patrol of the Royal Canadian Navy. At the time, he was the Navy's youngest commissioned officer. He served from from 1915 to 1918, on trawlers, mine sweepers, and mine layers. Upon leaving the service, he operated a woollen mill at Thurso, Quebec.

Professional Career

Along with Paul Caron, Cuthbertson illustrated Blodwen Davies’ book “Saguenay,” (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, Ltd., 1930). Cuthbertson authored and illustrated “Freshwater, a history of the Great Lakes,” (Toronto: MacMillan, 1931).

He became a prominent marine painter, exhibiting in major centres in Canada and the United States. His works are found in the collection of the National Archives of Canada, the Canada Steamship Lines Maritime Collection and various North American marine museums.

The Canada Steamship Lines exhibited his fully worked watercolours and maps with accompanying catalogues, in 1928 and 1942. In 1942, the exhibition travelled to London, Ontario and Fort William, Ontario and to the Mariners Museum in Newport, Virginia.

Works

Many of his works describe the history of shipping on the Great Lakes.

At the National Archives of Canada, The George Cuthbertson (1900-1969) Collection consists of:

• 91 water colours, drawings and sketches.
• 146 watercolours watercolour, gouache, pen and ink.
• 107 drawings pen and ink, pencil.
• 41 photographs b&w.
• 4 paintings tempera.
• 1 print engraving.
• 3 reproductions photo-mechanical, col. process.

The Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston, Ontario features several of his works:

• drawings as a child in Toronto, Ontario
• wartime watercolours,
• charcoal study sketches done after the war.

Maritime Subjects include:

• Esquimalt, British Columbia Barquentine "Puako", "Fremona" & "Tory Head"; Dugout Canoe, "H.M.S. Rainbow and Algeria"
• Vancouver, British Columbia Harbour; "M.L. in Heavy Weather"; "Egeria Cutter"; "Sir Henry Harness";
• Halifax, Nova Scotia "Kingfisher"; "Triumph" at Halifax; Canadian Submarines Arriving at Halifax; Warwick and Knapton Canal;
• Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa River-L. Champlain (Barge Series); Barge "Hon. L. Hill (?)" of Whitehall, N.Y.; Ottawa Transportation Co.,
• Gatineau, Quebec "Blue Barges" (6);
• Niagara, Ontario Niagara Railway Suspension Bridge;
• Mutton Harbour/ H.M.C.S. Acadia elevation;
• Castlegar Ferry Landing and West Robeson C.P.R. Steamer;
• Cliff Face Construction(Caribou Road);
• A Mississippi and Ohio River Steamer, Pittsburg (Sailor smoking cigar); and others.

External links

• [1] George Adrian Cuthbertson fonds at National Archives Canada

• [2] Cuthbertson's works donated to a museum in Kingston.