BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

Rev. Dr. John Williams Ogden

1859 - October 16 1936

Vancouver Exhibition Association
B.C Society of Fine Arts (Member 1925-1927)

Rev. Dr. John Williams Ogden exhibited his work with the Vancouver Exhibition Association in 1924, 1925, and 1926. He is first listed in the City Directory in 1921, living at 1044 Eveleigh.

On November 25, 1925, Ogden gave an illustrated lecture sponsored by the B.C. Art League titled Constantinople as I Knew It. The lecture was given at the King Edward High School Library.

Information from an exhibition application at the Vancouver Art Gallery stated that he was living in Vancouver, and had been living in B.C. since 1920. He exhibited in the 1924, 1925, and 1950 Annual Exhibitions of the B.C Society of Fine Arts, and was listed as a member of the Society in the 1925 to 1927 exhibition catalogues. He had work in the 1933 annual B.C. Artists exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. His daughter Fannie Ogden also had a painting in that exhibition.

Ogden was one of the Vancouver artists vehemently opposed to work created by the Group of Seven, and wrote a letter to the Vancouver Province insisting that the paintings be burned, and denouncing the National Gallery for allowing people to be on the selection committee who had acquired the position by "political influence and and press manipulation". Refer to Charles C. Hill's The Group of Seven - Art for a Nation for further information on this eighty year old controversy. Somewhat ironically, this author likes the work of the Group of Seven, and for a while owned a nice little gouache painting by Ogden (painted in traditional fashion) that I also liked very much (before giving it to a good friend as a birthday present).

B.C. Vital Statistics on-line lists the death of John William Ogden in Vancouver on October 16, 1936 at the age of 77. This is probably the artist.


GROUP EXHIBITIONS
DATE EXHIBITION ARTWORK
1924 May 3 - 17 BCSFA   16th Annual Exhibition Dawn on Lake Moraine
Hell's Gate, Fraser Canyon, B.C.
Capilano Canyon
The Lions, from Capilano Hotel
1924 Aug. 9 - 16 Vancouver Exhibition   Annual Exhibition Hell's Gate, Fraser River
Capilano Canyon
The Lions from Capilano Hotel
1925 May 9 - 16 BCSFA   17th Annual Exhibition Lake Moraine
1933 Sept. 22 - Oct. 15 VAG   B.C. Artists 2nd Annual Evening on Howe Sound
1950 April 25 - May 14 BCSA   40th Annual Exhibition Mountain Landscape

References

THE FINE ARTS IN VANCOUVER, 1886 - 1930 (refer to THOM69)

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

The GROUP OF SEVEN - Art For A Nation
      1995, Charles C. Hill, National Gallery of Canada, ISBN 0-7710-6716-x
      376 pages, illustrated thoughout in colour and black & white
      Includes Endnotes, Notes to the Reader, List of works, Bibliography, Index
      Quote from Ogden's letter page 215.

VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY - B.C. ARTISTS FILES (refer to VPL)

Clippings

"Among the larger landscapes the "Dawn on Lake Moraine," by J. Williams Ogden, does actually bring the mind to a memory of dawn; it has that feeling of a happy respite before the battle of the day that very old and very young people share to the exclusion of the busy middle-aged taxpayer. Other notable pictures from this artist are a fine canvas of Capilano Canyon, and a still larger impression of the Lions - from Capilano - also. These have a delicate appreciation of the lighting and atmosphere of these well-known scenes that give them a new appeal."
      From "B.C. Society of Fine Arts - Annual Exhibition All This Week"
      Vancouver Province, May 7 1924

"But with regard to modernism, when we see that it has influenced Rev. J. Williams Ogden in his fine picture of mountain scenery in a way that can not but be regarded as beneficial - one is dumb in the presence of progress. In this picture, which is really a good example of the painter's style, the eye is not teased by a too meticulous definition of the nearer foreground."
      From "B.C. Society of Fine Arts" by Bernard McEvoy
      Vancouver Province, April 28 1928

"The Society membership has been constantly strengthened in the succeeding years by the addition of other members, which included in the early years ... Rev. W. Ogden ... "
      From "B.C. Society of Artists - A History" by J.D. Parker
      B.C. Society of Fine Arts 40th Annual Exhibition Catalogue, 1950


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