Lucius Richard O'Brien

(b Shanty Bay, nr Barrie, Ont., 15 Aug 1832; d Toronto, 13 Dec 1899). Canadian painter. He first trained as a civil engineer, but in 1872, at the age of 40, he began to paint full-time. In his oil paintings he often emphasized large vertical masses of rock and breathtaking light effects. His diploma piece for the Royal Canadian Academy, Sunrise on the Saguenay (1880; Ottawa, N.G.), is filled with spectrally tinted sunlight rounding the huge bluff of the river and permeating the mid- and foreground of the painting. Such works indicate his familiarity with the American Luminist school, and especially the paintings of Albert Bierstadt, who visited Canada on several occasions and whom O'Brien knew well.

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Lucius O'Brien

Lucius Richard O'Brien (15 August 1832 – 13 December 1899) was born in Shanty Bay, Ontario and practiced as a civil engineer until he became a professional painter. He is best known for landscape paintings from across Canada in oil and watercolour. Many of his paintings are held by the National Gallery of Canada.

He was the first and founding president of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1880 and editor of Picturesque Canada (1882).

He died in Toronto, Ontario at the age of 67.

External links

• Examples of O'Brien's Landscapes
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

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