Born in Ottawa on December 29, 1874, Ernest Fosbery was the son of civil servant Henry Fosbery and Charlotte Hall. He was educated in Ottawa and studied art under Franklin Brownell; he also studied in Paris and made an extensive tour of European galleries before returning to Canada.
In 1907, he was appointed instructor in drawing and painting at the Art Students’ League, Buffalo, New York. Fosbery returned to Ottawa in 1911, opened a studio, taught at the Ottawa Art Institute and devoted much of his time to portraiture.
At the outbreak of the First World War, Fosbery joined the militia and served for several months with the Governor General’s Foot Guards before he volunteered with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in June 1915. He was wounded in the Battle of the Somme and was Mentioned in Despatches.
The Canadian Expeditionary Force was the designation of the field force created by Canada for service overseas in the First World War. The force fielded several combat formations on the Western Front in France and Belgium, the largest of which was the Canadian Corps, consisting of four divisions.
26th Battalion of the Second Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1915
In 1918, he was appointed an official war artist with the rank of Major and amongst a variety of war subjects; he completed paintings for the Canadian War Memorials which included portraits of two Canadian Victoria Cross recipients: Pte. M.J. O'Rourke, V.C., and Sgt. W.T. Holmes, V.C., both of which are now in the Canadian War Memorials collection at the National Gallery of Canada.
Private M.J. O’Rourke, V.C - Painted by Ernest George Fosbery in 1919 - Beaverbrook Collection of War Art
CWM 19710261-0147 - Canadian War Museum
Fosbery was also responsible for introducing A. Y. Jackson, who later became a member of the Group of Seven, to Lord Beaverbrook, Canadian born tycoon, writer and politician.
The Group of Seven was a school of landscape painters. It was founded in 1920 as an organization of self-proclaimed modern artists and disbanded in 1933. The group presented the dense, northern boreal forest of the Canadian Shield as a transcendent, spiritual force. Their depictions of Canada’s rugged wind-swept forest panoramas were eventually equated with a romanticized notion of Canadian strength and independence. Their works were noted for their bright colours, tactile paint handling, and simple yet dynamic forms. In addition to Tom Thomson, David Milne and Emily Carr, the Group of Seven were the most important Canadian artists of the early 20th century. Their influence is seen in artists as diverse as abstract painter Jack Bush, the Painters Eleven, and Scottish painter Peter Doig.
During WWI, the Canadian government had put Lord Beaverbrook in charge of creating the Canadian War Records Office in London, and he made certain that news of Canada's contribution to the war was printed in Canadian and British newspapers.
However, Lord Beaverbrook had no knowledge of Canadian artists – it was only on the suggestion of Fosbery that he decided to give Canadian artists an opportunity to record the activity of their country's fighting forces. Thanks to Fosbery, Jackson was transferred to the Canadian War Records branch as an artist where he went on to create important pictures of events connected with the war, and later worked for the Canadian War Memorials as an official war artist from 1917 to 1919.
Following the war, Fosbery pursued his career as a portrait painter in Ottawa, raised a large family and was actively involved with the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts, serving as President of the Academy from 1943 to 1948. His paintings of prominent Canadians, including Viscount Byng of Vimy, Chief Justice Lyman Duff and the Honourable Ernest Manning, can be found in collections at the National Gallery, Library and Archives Canada, the House of Commons, the Canadian War Museum and elsewhere.
Fosbery died at Cowansville, Quebec on February 7, 1960.
