O-696

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painting (portrait)

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The Honourable Thomas D'Arcy McGee

The Honourable Thomas D’Arcy McGee

Thomas D’Arcy McGee was born in Ireland in 1825. In his youth he advocated armed insurrection to free his country from British rule. He was implicated in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 and fled to the United States. In 1857 he immigrated to the Province of Canada (1841–1867) and was elected to its legislative assembly, representing the constituency of Montreal West.

McGee was a passionate and vocal proponent of Confederation and British-style parliamentary government in Canada. He also supported peaceful change for Ireland and was branded a traitor by Fenian nationalists. He was assassinated on Sparks Street near Parliament in 1868.

This portrait was painted by Montreal artist Bruce Mitchell one hundred years after McGee arrived in Canada. Mitchell depicted the “Father of Confederation” standing before a panelled wall, holding a book, seemingly poised to deliver an address. An inscription indicates that the artwork was presented to Parliament by the Thomas D’Arcy McGee Association of Montreal.

Bruce Mitchell

Bruce Mitchell was born in 1912, likely in Great Britain, and immigrated to Montreal with his family in 1926. He first learned to paint from his father, a Scottish-born painter who trained in London and Paris and who gained recognition as a cartoonist in England during the First World War. Mitchell later studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. After 1939, he honed his talents at a school connected with the Art Association of Montreal, forerunner to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He is best known for his oil paintings exploring the dramatic play of light and shadow in landscapes and rural scenes of Quebec. Mitchell died in Montreal in 1995.