Idea to Exhibition, Anthony Flower, The life and art of a country painter, 19th Century New Brunswick Artist, Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB Canada

The story of the Anthony Flower exhibition starts in 2002 with Ann Lowe, a retired professor who volunteers at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery as a docent. Docents give tours about our art collection to the public and help them understand more about art through activities and discussions. She began to research the artwork of Anthony Flower because our Gallery had five of his portraits and there were very few published articles or any mention of him in art books.

After locating his original home in MacDonald’s Corner, Queens County and his gravestone she became intrigued with this painter. Ann’s research opened up the world of this artist in a way no one could have imagined. She searched for documented facts such as marriage records, wills, sale of property records and census records relating to Anthony Flower and his wife, Mary Green Flower. She investigated documents held at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, archives of the University of New Brunswick, the National Archives of Canada, New Brunswick Museum and the Queens County Historical Society & Museum Inc. Copies of The Marine Journal in Saint John were searched to determine when his father's ship The Trent sailed to Saint John, New Brunswick. This information helped Ann discover what year Anthony arrived in Canada as an immigrant.

A small number of paintings by Anthony Flower had been donated to public museums in the 1980s. Ann decided to locate all the works of art in New Brunswick to photograph, document (record their subject, size, medium), provenance (the history of who had owned them) and create a catalogue raisonné (a collection of artwork by a single artist). In order to locate paintings owned by family members Ann developed the genealogy (family tree) because his family had lived in England and his wife’s family, the Greens, had been early settlers and United Empire Loyalists from New York State. She searched using the obituaries in newspapers, friends of the family and previous research by historical societies and located many relatives in Canada and the United States. By 2003 she had located the earliest art work dated 1804 and over one hundred paintings and two sketch books.

Beaverbrook Art Gallery Director and CEO Bernard Riordon met with Ann Lowe in 2003. After seeing all the information she had collected he decided that an exhibition should be developed to be held in March 2006. Bernie asked Laurie Glenn Norris, Manager of Communications and Programming at the Gallery to curate the exhibition. As a curator, Laurie’s job was to develop the catalogue (the book about the exhibition which contains a biography of the artist, the history of the time in which the artist was working, samples of the artwork, and a list of any books used for information called a bibliography) and apply for funding for the exhibition. Laurie was able to secure the generous support of the Province of New Brunswick and the Museums Assistance Programme of the Government of Canada.

The catalogue and the exhibition are both titled The Life and Art of a Country Painter: Anthony Flower (1792-1875). The catalogue contains his biography, a chronology (story of the research) and a list of all the artwork known to date prepared by Ann Lowe. Laurie Glenn Norris wrote the introduction to the catalogue, explained the importance of this artist to New Brunswick, the history of New Brunswick in the early 1800s and information about other painters working in the same time period. The exhibition includes paintings and artefacts from our own collection at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, as well as that of Kings Landing Historical Settlement, the New Brunswick Museum, Queen’s County Historical Society Inc., the Provincial Collection, and items from the private collections of many generous lenders. The Life and Art of a Country Painter: Anthony Flower (1792-1875) will travel throughout the Atlantic Provinces during 2007.

By the end of 2004 Ann Lowe had found relatives of Anthony Flower’s and owners of his artwork (private collectors) in Canada, the United States and Australia and over two hundred paintings and additional sketchbooks. She discovered important sources for some of these paintings in the sketchbooks. She examined twenty-eight years of a popular magazine called the Illustrated London News (1842-1870) and found many of the original illustrations Anthony Flower had reproduced to make his paintings. Ann discovered he also had access to the magazine Punch and admired the work of artist William Henry Bartlett who lived from 1809-1854.

Since his life before he came to Canada was still a mystery, Ann Lowe and fellow researcher and historian Dawn Bremner spent ten days in the fall of 2005 in London, England searching for more information about the Flower family. While in Berkhamsted, about fifty kilometres from London, they visited the actual home he lived in from 1808 to 1817. They were assisted there by local historians and were able to add new information to the story.

The exhibition The Life and Art of a Country Painter: Anthony Flower (1792-1875), on display from March 19 to September 4 2006 at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the catalogue and the website have all come from Ann Lowe’s keen interest and dedication to learning more about the life of a forgotten man and his art, Anthony Flower.