In 1924, Beatty purchased the historic, and by then out of us, Molson Mill building in Port Hope,
Ontario. The Molson Mill at Port Hope was first established in 1851 by Thomas Molson of the prominent
Molson family, and operated as a flour mill until the late 19th Century. By the time Beatty purchased the property, it was long abandoned, and from then until his death in 1941, the Ontario College of Art used the building as a summer school.
This panel bears an authentication inscription by prominent Canadian Art Dealer, G. Blair Laing dated 1972.
(1869-1941) Born in Toronto, Ontario , Beatty, quit school early to work as a house painter and engraver. He became a fireman in Toronto and married Caroline Cormack who was inspirational in his development as an artist. He studied under J.W.L. Forster, George A. Reid, F.M. Bell-Smith and William Cruikshank…
(1869-1941) Born in Toronto, Ontario , Beatty, quit school early to work as a house painter and engraver. He became a fireman in Toronto and married Caroline Cormack who was inspirational in his development as an artist. He studied under J.W.L. Forster, George A. Reid, F.M. Bell-Smith and William Cruikshank in his spare time from the fire hall. He also studied at the Academie Julian in Paris, and in London during his travels to other parts of Europe before WWI. A landscape and still life painter, his early landscapes have the sombre, gray aura of the French and Dutch traditional school of painting. Around 1910 he was among the first of the Toronto artists to travel to northern Ontario to paint. During this period he befriended Tom Thomson and A.Y. Jackson. He painted in the Rocky Mountains in 1914 with A.Y. Jackson and C.W. Jefferys. His association with the artists who would later become members of the Group of Seven greatly influenced his work. His paintings and prints became much more colourful. Teaching at the Ontario College of Art (1912-41), he exerted a considerable influence on other artists.
