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The Man and the Studio
Stanley G. Triggs
The businessman and his network
The year 1860 was in many ways a turning point for Notman. He moved into larger quarters next door on Bleury Street, established the art department, photographed the Prince of Wales as he toured Montreal, prepared the maple box with its contents of over 500 photographs which was presented by the Canadian Government to the Prince, and as a result was declared "Photographer to the Queen". One of the most far-reaching activities Notman was engaged in that year was the formation of the Art Association of Montreal. The first meeting, which took place in his studio on Bleury Street on January 11, 1860, was organized by a group of citizens interested in promoting an awareness of the arts in the community.1 Their immediate goal was to organize an art exhibition for the coming of the Prince of Wales in the following August. The display of oil paintings, watercolours and photographs, held in the newly-built Crystal Palace, was a huge success and formed a nice counterpoint to the industrial, manufacturing, scientific and agricultural displays. For Notman it was a personal triumph: his photographs carried off top awards, a silver and a bronze medal.
More important to his business, however, were the contacts he made and strengthened as a founding member of the Art Association of Montreal and through his many years of devoted service to the development of its goals. Members were a cross-section of Montreal's intellectual, commercial and artistic elite. Scientists, geologists, educators, clergymen, artists, doctors, lawyers, industrialists and businessmen were subscribers to Montreal's first organization to promote the arts.2 Alexander Henderson, who presided over that first meeting and was later known internationally for his romantic interpretations of Canadian landscape, became a life-long friend of the Notman family. Both he and William contributed photographs to Art Association exhibitions and donated albums of their works as prizes. The two men also belonged to other organizations, such as the Montreal Camera Club.
Most of the names in the Art Association membership rolls are to be found in Notman's portrait file. Redpath, Drummond, Molson, Frothingham, Stephens, Savage, Lyman, Atwater, Allan, Ogilvie and Greenshields were some of the better-known members whose families were photographed by Notman.
One of these was Sir William Logan, the geologist and founder of the Geological Survey of Canada, who made use of Notman's services for copies of his scientific sketches as well as for portraits. Another member, Sir William Dawson, Principal of McGill College, admired Notman's work and frequently called on him for portraits of himself and his family and to photograph various buildings and classrooms on the campus.
In 1867 Notman bought a large house in Longueuil, a farm village on the south shore of the St. Lawrence which was becoming popular as a location for summer homes. Later he made it his year-round home, adding a large wing that almost doubled the amount of floor space. There was now enough room in the gingerbread house to accommodate the large family of William's brother John as well as his own. Notman was very much involved in community life in Longueuil. An active member of the yacht club, he served as secretary, vice-president and president at various times and donated a silver trophy known as the Notman Cup to be vied for annually. While in Longueuil the Notman family attended St. Mark's Anglican Church, where Mr. Notman regularly sat on the finance committee and served as the minister's warden.
When the Notmans moved back to Montreal in 1876 they bought a house from John Molson, next door to the latter's own residence. They attended St. Martin's Anglican Church just a few blocks up the street, a new building partially financed by John Molson, where Notman again became a member of the finance committee. When the Notman's daughter Jessie married Henry M. Belcher in this church in 1884, the officiating clergyman was the Rev. Samuel Belcher, the bridegroom's father. Notman and Molson's friendship dated back to 1860 and the founding of the Art Association of Montreal3 and the two were commonly engaged in community endeavours or financial schemes together. With two other partners they held 295 lots in Longueuil which were put up at auction in 1873, and both were members of the syndicate that backed the Windsor Hotel, built in 1878.
The Montreal General Hospital used Notman's services from time to time to make exterior views of their building, and of some of the wards with patients and staff. He also made portraits of staff members and of chairmen of the Board of Directors, which were enlarged life-size on to emulsified canvas, coloured in oil and placed in ornate gilded frames to hang in the board room. Notman himself was a member of the board in the 1880s. He was also involved with the Y.M.C.A., chairing lecture series, and was president of the Montreal Amateur Camera Club, which met at the Y.M.C.A. George Desbarats, the publisher of the Canadian Illustrated News and its French-language counterpart, was a frequent user of Notman photographs, transferred into the medium of woodcuts, engravings and leggotypes. In fact the cover picture on the first issue of the Canadian Illustrated News was a photograph by William Notman of Prince Arthur, who was in Canada as an officer-in-training.4
1Montreal Pilot, January 24, 1860: announcement to form the Art Association of Montreal; Montreal Pilot, February 21, 1860: meeting to set up the Art Association of Montreal.
2Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Archives, Art Association of Montreal Scrapbooks, vol. 1, 1864. Membership List for 1863.
3Ibid, vol. 2, 1863, p. 1.
4This inaugural edition was the world's first mass-produced publication to use half-tone reproduction of photographs. The process used was the leggotype, named after its Montreal inventor, William Augustus Leggo (1830-1915).
