George Pepper, 1903 - 1962

George Douglas Pepper studied four years with J.E.H. MacDonald at the Ontario College of art in Toronto.  After graduation in 1924, he went on to study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, and spent a notable amount of time in Italy.

Upon his return to Canada in 1925, he became interested in relief printing techniques along with Carl Schaefer. He made his first trip out west to BC and to teach at the Banff School of art in 1928, afterwards he produced a series of linoprints with First Nation Aboriginal themes. He exited Ontario Society of Artists in 1925 and 1926. He showed both lino and woodcuts with the Royal Canadian Academy from 1925 to 1927.

in 1930, Pepper moved to Toronto to take a teaching position at the Ontario College of Art.He held that position for over 20 years and would finish his teaching career as Vice principle of the school.

He was a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters in 1933. In 1954 he was commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway to paint a mural for the interior of one of the new cars entering service on the new Canadian transcontinental train. Each of the murals depicted a different national or provincial park; Pepper painted Kootenay National Park. In 1957, he was named to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Pepper and his artist wife Kathleen Daily visited the eastern Arctic in 1960 and spent three months studying Inuit art.

Pepper died in Toronto at the age of 59.

 

Selected Collections
Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, ON
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
McMichael Gallery, Kleinburg, ON
Banff School of fine Arts, Banff, BC
The Feckless Collection, Vancouver, BC
Musée d'art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, QC
National Gallery of South Africa,  Cape Town, SA