BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

Ross Anthony Lort

October 4 1889 - May 16 1968

Employed by Samuel Maclure (1907 - 1916)
C.E.F. 8th Battalion Canadian Railway Troops, France & Belgium (1916 - 1919)
Partner Maclure and Lort (1919 - 1929)
Partner Ross A. Lort Architect (1929 - ?)
Partner Lort and Lort Architects (? - 1964 retired)
B.C. Society of Fine Arts (Member 1931-1967, Executive 1933-37, President 1945-48, Life Member 1951-1967)
B.C. Society of Fine Arts/B.C. Society of Artists: Exhibitor's Timeline
Architectural Institute of B.C. (Member)
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (Member)
Vancouver Art Gallery (Life Governor)
Vancouver Little Theatre (Honorary Life Member)
B.C. Drama Association (Honorary President)
Dominion Drama Festival (Honorary Governor)
Arts & Letters Club of B.C. (Past President)
Commmunity Arts Council (Founding Board Member 1946)



Ross Anthony Lort was born in Birmingham, England, taking early art training there. He arrived in Canada in 1907, and took further art training from Samuel Maclure, who was one of B.C.'s early architects, and also an artist. Lort worked for Maclure until he went into service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Europe during World War One. He arrived in England on December 28 1916 on board the S.S. Olympia, and in France on April 20 1917. In 1917 he was appointed to the rank of Sergeant, earning $20.00 per month plus $20.00 a month separation allowance for his family. In December that year he was diagnosed with appendicitis after reporting numerous physical disabilities, and was evacuated to England for an operation. He returned to France where he was appointed Clerk at Rouen on July 11 1919 (probably an error for 1918).

When the war ended Lort was demobilized in England, and returned to Canada on the Empress of England, sailing for Canada on March 23 1919. He received a "War Service Badge Class A" number 239204, and a "War Service Gratuity" of $500.00. Upon his return he was made a partner with Maclure and put in charge of the Vancouver office. Lort was the 68th architect registered with the Architectural Institute of B.C.

As an artist, Lort mostly created woodcuts, but also did watercolor and tempera paintings. In 1918 he exhibited carved animals as "crafts" with the Island Arts and Crafts Society.

Lort married Cecilia Marion Frances Rolston in Victoria on July 22, 1913. They had five children.

In 1931 Lort self-published a limited edition of All Creatures Great and Small, a small artist's book. The book consisted of 26 limericks about animals, each illustrated with a humourous linocut block print. In the 1960s Lort had another edition of the book published by Marine Printers, Vancouver. In a 2004 interview with Lort's son Billy Lort the editor was advised that all of the linoleum blocks for the book had disintegrated over time. An effort was made to print the book again after the 1960s edition, but the blocks were not in good enough condition to be used again, and were all thrown out.

 

The 1936-37 issue of the art school Prospectus noted that Lort was teaching a night course in Stagecraft, and that he "has been responsible for the stage sets of over one hundred plays produced by The Vancouver Little Theatre Association over a course of twelve years."

In 1945 Lort was Chairman of the Education Committee at the Vancouver Art Gallery. He was also on the New Building Committee in 1945, and was eventually awarded the commission to design the art gallery extension that opened on September 26, 1951. (coincidentally this was the very day the editor was born across town at St. Vincent's Hospital)


Art Gallery in 1951.

The Lorts were very active in the artistic scene in Vancouver, and were friends with Charles Marega, Jock Macdonald, and Harold Mortimer Lamb. W.P. Weston and his wife came to Sunday dinner with the Lorts on a regular basis.

Lort retired in 1964. It seems that the firm name continued for some time as Lort & Lort Architects, as that name is on the construction drawings for the Plaza 500 Hotel at 12th & Cambie, Vancouver, which opened in the mid-1970s. It is diagonally across the street from City Hall, and the Jolly Alderman pub was a popular spot. The city Mayors held their annual reception there on occasion.

For some reason Lort did not seem to exhibit his artwork after the 1950 B.C. Society of Artists 40th Anniversary show.


1962 birthday party

Lort died in Vancouver in 1968, aged 78, after suffering from a stroke.


GROUP EXHIBITIONS
DATE EXHIBITION ARTWORK
1932 May - July VAG   All Canadian Exhibition Barn, Lulu Island
Lonely Trail, Cheakamus Canyon
1932 Oct. 5 - 30 VAG   B.C. Artists 1st Annual The Fisherman's Quilt
1933 Feb. 13 - 18 Sylvia Court    West End Artists Exhibition (title not known)
1933 June 3 - 11 BCSFA   23rd Annual Coal Bunker, False Creek
Obsolescence
A Hydah Raid
Harry Hood
Terra Nova
Japanese Village
The Golden Ear
1937 April 16 - May 1 BCSFA   27th Annual Blank Expression
On Nicola Street
1940 May 17 - June 2 BCSFA   30th Annual Circus Detail
1945 May 18 - June 10 BCSFA   35th Annual Haida Indian Oolichan Box Designs (1)
Haida Indian Oolichan Box Designs (2)
1950 April 25 - May 14 BCSA   40th Annual Coalbunker
Circus Detail


References - MONOGRAPHS

Refer to BIBLIO.

References - GROUP EXHIBITIONS

SOUVENIR CATALOGUE OF EXHIBITIONS OPENING THE NEW VANCOUVER ART GALLERY (refer to VAG51)

100 YEARS OF B.C. ART (refer to VAG58)

4th BURNABY NATIONAL PRINT SHOW (refer to BAG67)

PRINTMAKING IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 1889-1983 (refer to AGGV83)

VANCOUVER: ART & ARTISTS 1931 - 1983 (refer to VAG83)

References - GENERAL

Canadian Expeditionary Force World War One service file for Lort (online, 62 pages)
      https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B5743-S058

WHO'S WHO IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 1937-38-39
      A Record of British Columbia Men and Women of Today
      S. Maurice Carter Editor & Publisher
      Copyright 1939, printed by The Robson Printers, Vancouver B.C.
      208 pages, hardcover; name index (8 pages), biographies (196 pages), obits. (4 pages)
      Includes reference to Lort

WHO'S WHO IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 1944-45-46
      A Record of British Columbia Men and Women of Today
      S. Maurice Carter Editor & Publisher
      Copyright 1945, printed by Atlas Printers, Vancouver B.C.
      312 pages, hardcover; index of names (14 pages), biographies (290 pages)
      list of abbreviations (2 pages), advertising including the only portrait in the book
      Includes reference to Ross Lort

ISLAND ARTS AND CRAFTS SOCIETY - List of Exhibitors

ARTISTS IN CANADA 1982 - UNION LIST OF ARTISTS' FILES (refer to AIC82)

OCEAN PAPER STONE by Robert Bringhurst
      "catalogue of an exhibition of printed objects", published by William Hoffer Spring 1984
      Includes All Creatures Great and Small with publisher/edition information
      Although Bringhurst didn't know who Lort was, he knew about the two editions of the work

A DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN ARTISTS (refer to M)

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF ARTISTS IN CANADA (refer to BIAC03)
     2 references to Lort.

BUILDING THE WEST - Early Architects of British Columbia
      2003; Edited by Donald Luxton, numerous contributing authors and researchers
      Talonbooks, ISBN 0-88922-474-9
      560 pages, extensively illustrated in black and white, some colour
      4 page biography of Lort; 2 linocuts from All Creatures Great and Small reproduced

THE FECKLESS COLLECTION (refer to FECK18)

Telephone interview by Gary Sim with William (Billy) Lort, son of Ross Lort, and interview at editor's apartment with Billy Lort, 2004.

Review of Lort fond at Vancouver Art Gallery Library.

Correspondence and telephone calls with John Lort, grandson of Ross Lort, 2023.

Clippings

"Two of the most attractive of the water colors shown are M.A. Bain's of a windy day in spring and Ross Lort's "Fisherman's Quilt." The former has a wee marine scape in oils on exhibition also."
      From "B.C. Artists Reveal Talent at Show"
      unknown newspaper, October 1932

"Ross Lort is exhibiting a picture never before shown, ... "
      From "'West End' Show Of Art Works" by D.S.M.
      Vancouver Sun, February 15 1933

""Circus Detal" (sic) by Ross Lort is a delightful small painting, in simple, direct coloring, original in both subject and design, and with more than a touch of that rare ingredient, humor."
      From "Watercolors Highlight of Art Showing" by Mildred Valley Thornton
      Vancouver Sun, May 3 1950

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