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John Martin Alfsen RCA, known more commonly as John Alfsen (December 23, 1902 – November  30, 1971) was a painter, known for his portraits, figurative work and paintings of circus life.

Biography

John Martin Alfsen was born in Long Rapids, Michigan, and emigrated to Canada in 1913 as a boy of 11, settling in Toronto. He studied at the Ontario College of Art with Arthur Lismer, F. H. Varley and J.W. Beatty (1920–1922), then at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, and sculpture with Antoine Bourdelle at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris. Following his year in Europe, he took further study at the Art Students' League, New York, under Kenneth Hayes Miller (1925).

He taught at the Ontario College of Art from 1926 to 1971. For two years, he lived in Sarasota where he taught and painted winter circus people at the Ringling Brothers School of Art. An award was established in his memory at the College in 1986.

His work was featured in an exhibition with Randolph Hewton in 1943 at the then Art Gallery of Toronto, at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, Ontario (1958) and recently, in the exhibition Drawn to Dance with York Wilson and Canadian artist Grant Macdonald in 2016 at the DCD Gallery, Toronto.

His works are in public collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, and the University College Collection of the Art Museum, University of Toronto. Clown Alley in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario was painted when the artist was spending the winter with the Ringling Brothers School of Art in Florida. His work can be seen at Alfsen House, 154 Main St. North, Markham, Ontario.

Alfsen was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1959), the Ontario Society of Artists (1939); the Canadian Group of Painters and the Canadian Society of Graphic Art (1956).

References

1. "John Martin Alfsen". app.pch.gc.ca. Government of Canada. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
2. G. Campbell McInnes, "No. 2 - John Alfsen". The Canadian Forum vol. 16 ( March 1937), p. 18.
3. ^ A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada.
4. ^ "John Martin Alfsen". www.johnalfsen.com. John Alfsen House, Markham. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
5. Exhibition. World Catalogue. OCLC 78944669. Retrieved 24 March 2021 – via www.worldcat.org.
6. "Drawn to Dance exhibition". www.museumsontario.ca. Ontario Museums. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
7. "John Martin Alfsen". www.gallery.ca. National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
8. Alfsen, John Martin. "The Collection". ago.ca. Art Gallery of Ontario. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
9. "John Alfsen". collections.artmuseum.utoronto.ca:8080/objects. Artmuseum, University of Toronto. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
10. Bradfield, Helen (1970). Art Gallery of Ontario. the Canadian Collection. Toronto: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0070925046. Archived from the original on 7 June 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2021.

• 1902 births
• 1971 deaths
• OCAD University alumni
• Academic staff of OCAD University
• 20th-century Canadian painters
• Canadian male painters
• Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
• American emigrants to Canada
• 20th-century Canadian male artists