Lionel LeMoine Fitzgerald was a Canadian artist and art educator.
Background
L.L. Fitzgerald was born in Winnipeg on March 17, 1890 to Lionel Henry Fitzgerald and Belle (Hicks) Fitzgerald. His father, L. H. Fitzgerald, was of Irish descent, born in the West Indies and raised in Quebec. His mother"s family had left Devonshire for Canada, eventually settling on a farm in the Pembina Hills near Snowflake, Manitoba.
Career
His landscapes and still lifes were drawn from his immediate surroundings—the view of the back lane outside his house. A potted plant on the windowsill. His style grew more spare and abstract over his career.
His body work includes painting in oil and watercolour, drawing, printmaking and sculpture.
He was employed as a bank messenger and sometimes dealt in real estate. Fitzgerald left school at 14, with a Grade Eight education.
He worked first as an office boy, then was employed as a clerk for various businesses. He found it was not how he wanted to spend his life.
In his spare time, Fitzgerald began to draw and paint regularly.
He used John Ruskin’s Elements of Drawing (1857) as a guide for his self-directed study. He signed up for a winter of evening classes at the Associate of Science Kesthelyi School of Fine Artist He remarked in later years that "I am still wondering how it was possible to find out so much in so short a time." Fitzgerald married Felicia Wright (1883-1962) in 1912.
He arranged window displays, did free-lance interior decorating and painted theatre backdrops.
His artistic work met with some success. In 1913, he exhibited at the Royal Canadian Academy (Montreal).
In 1918, his painting, Late Fall, Manitoba was purchased by the National Gallery of Canada and in 1921 he received his first solo exhibition, at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. He spent the winter of 1921-1922 at the Art Students League of New York in New York City.
1930 Exhibited work in two shows with the Group of Seven 1932 invited to join the Group of Seven, after the death of J. East. H. MacDonald He died of a heart attack in Winnipeg on August 7, 1956.
In 1924, Fitzgerald began teaching at the Winnipeg School of Artist He was promoted to principal of the school in 1929, a position he held until 1947. Fitzgerald died in Winnipeg and his ashes were spread in a field in Snowflake, Manitoba.
Membership
He was the only member of the Group of Seven to be based in western Canada.