Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

[Goldie]

Art Gallery - AGO

A few comparable shots of the AGO in 2009:

 

[LowPolygon]

a few aerial and high angle shots i like:

 

[thecharioteer]

So many pics you've posted in this thread, deepend, are absolutely stunning from a purely compositional and (dare I say it) "art" point of view. It's amazing that so few of these photographers are known, as a number of shots are certainly the equal of those taken by their New York counterparts (Berenice Abbott, Steichen, Riis et al). It could also be that we don't have the equivalent to the Museum of the City of New York, but that's another story.

I love the view from old Union Stations:

Here's another:

 

[Urban Shocker]

Wonderful images of an austere Walker Court and the pre-OCA Grange property.

Artist Sydney Strickland Tully, daughter of architect Kivas Tully.

 

[LowPolygon]

So many pics you've posted in this thread, deepend, are absolutely stunning from a purely compositional and (dare I say it) "art" point of view. It's amazing that so few of these photographers are known, as a number of shots are certainly the equal of those taken by their New York counterparts (Berenice Abbott, Steichen, Riis et al). It could also be that we don't have the equivalent to the Museum of the City of New York, but that's another story.

Thank you! I am continually amazed at the number of stunning photos that exist of the City of Toronto. What is equally amazing is how little known they are. Like you I believe that the best of these images are the equal of the images produced by the giants of city photography you’ve mentioned. Hopefully in time, some of these images will be seen among a wider history and image loving public, and not just locally. On that note, it is rather sad and sobering that there isn’t a proper “Museum of the City of Torontoâ€. I wonder why this initiative has never coalesced?

To my mind, Toronto is one of the most unexamined and most poorly understood major cities in the world, and certainly its history is far more interesting than most people know….

 

[LowPolygon]

Wonderful images of an austere Walker Court and the pre-OCA Grange property.

Artist Sydney Strickland Tully, daughter of architect Kivas Tully.

thank you for that! i wasn't aware of who she was...

 

[Urban Shocker]

Biography synopsis
A relative of Catharine Parr Traill, Susanna Moodie, and Agnes Fitzgibbon, Sydney Strickland Tully received extensive artistic training, studying in Toronto, Paris, London and New York. Although she is best known for her portraits, landscapes and genre scenes in oil and pastel, she began her career as a painter of photographs and designer of Christmas cards. Inspired by Parisian ateliers, Tully operated studios in Toronto (from 1888-90), London (1895), and in Holland and Jersey (1906-08). A member of the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy, she participated in exhibitions throughout Europe and North American, including the Art Association of Montreal (1892-1909), the Toronto Industrial Exhibition (1890-1910), World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the Paris Salon (1888), the Royal Academy (1896-97), and the 91 Club in London. Additional awards and honours included an honourable mention at the Pan-American exhibition in Buffalo and a bronze medal at the Saint Louis Exposition, both for one of her most famous works, "The Twilight of Life" (1894). Tully also contributed articles on European affairs to "The Globe" and illustrated a children's book, published posthumously.

And some background on the O.S.A.:

http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/on-line-exhibits/osa/school-art-design.aspx

The Toronto Normal School, founded in 1847, led in 1876 to the creation of the Toronto School of art ( later OCA and OCAD ) under the leadership of the O.S.A., as well as to the Ontario Agricultural College ( 1874 ) and the Museum of Natural History and Fine Arts ( 1857 ) which later became the ROM.

 

[thecharioteer]

Biography synopsis
A relative of Catharine Parr Traill, Susanna Moodie, and Agnes Fitzgibbon, Sydney Strickland Tully received extensive artistic training, studying in Toronto, Paris, London and New York. Although she is best known for her portraits, landscapes and genre scenes in oil and pastel, she began her career as a painter of photographs and designer of Christmas cards. Inspired by Parisian ateliers, Tully operated studios in Toronto (from 1888-90), London (1895), and in Holland and Jersey (1906-08). A member of the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy, she participated in exhibitions throughout Europe and North American, including the Art Association of Montreal (1892-1909), the Toronto Industrial Exhibition (1890-1910), World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the Paris Salon (1888), the Royal Academy (1896-97), and the 91 Club in London. Additional awards and honours included an honourable mention at the Pan-American exhibition in Buffalo and a bronze medal at the Saint Louis Exposition, both for one of her most famous works, "The Twilight of Life" (1894). Tully also contributed articles on European affairs to "The Globe" and illustrated a children's book, published posthumously.

And some background on the O.S.A.:

http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/on-line-exhibits/osa/school-art-design.aspx

The Toronto Normal School, founded in 1847, led in 1876 to the creation of the Toronto School of art ( later OCA and OCAD ) under the leadership of the O.S.A., as well as to the Ontario Agricultural College ( 1874 ) and the Museum of Natural History and Fine Arts ( 1857 ) which later became the ROM.

Thank you for this, US. Our cultural amnesia also extends to our artists. She sounds like she stepped out of a novel by Henry James or Edith Wharton.

 

[Urban Shocker]

I think TonyV summed up all this we-are-not-worthy nonsense, including that cultural amnesia, quite nicely:

It's the same old thing: the positive types are out there enjoying things, taking stuff in. The negative types are the armchair critics.

Meanwhile ...

[/QUOTE]

Back, briefly, to the Princess Theatre building. As the photo shows, it was set back behind an entrance at 173 King West. The offices housed various arts organizations. In 1890 the Ontario Society of Artists ( OSA ) moved there, with the Toronto School of Art / Central Ontario School of Art and Industrial Design ( later OCA / OCAD ) operating under their auspices and connected by second floor rooms to the Art Museum of Toronto ( later the AGO ) where OSA members exhibited their work while they lobbied to get a proper art museum built. Hence the close geographic link between the AGO and OCAD today.

 

[thecharioteer]

Meanwhile ...

To the left of the pic, it looks like our mystery "hirise" at York and Wellington.

Given the route of the University Avenue extension, the ghost of the Princess Theatre now exists pretty close to the middle of the intersection of King and University.

 

[Goldie]

Regarding "earliest photo" of Toronto

An image, recently posted by thecharioteer, has been dated as 1859 (man & woman in garden).
There are photos at this address: <http://www.toronto.ca/archives/earliest_3_ab&h.htm>
which, it's claimed, are the earliest photos of Toronto (1856 or 1857).
Attached is one of the (1856-57) images.

Could there be anything earlier?

 

[adma]

To the left of the pic, it looks like our mystery "hirise" at York and Wellington.

Given the route of the University Avenue extension, the ghost of the Princess Theatre now exists pretty close to the middle of the intersection of King and University.

To the right of the Cyclorama: would that be the present-day 144 Front? (The building framing the bottom of University Ave.)

Oh, and and am I alone in finding that S. Strickland Tully looks, uh, Negro? (Sorry to be "Harry Reid" about it.)

 

[LowPolygon]

Oh, and and am I alone in finding that S. Strickland Tully looks, uh, Negro? (Sorry to be "Harry Reid" about it.)

well it crossed my mind....its hard to know what to make of it. there is absolutely nothing on line to indicate that she was mixed race. one of five girls born to father Kivas Tully, "born in Garrarucam, Queens County Ireland in 1820, the son of Commander John P. Tully of the Royal Navy"; and mother Marie Strickland "daughter of Lieut. Col. Strickland, of Lakeland Ontario".

in the only other photo i could find, she looks less mulatto, and her broad features are more within the range of a certain kind of Anglo-Irish appearance; so its entirely possible the harsh light and dark tonality of the studio portrait have created a misleading impression.

either way she's an extremely intense looking woman!

 

[matix]

wow, these roads look like they were designed by the 1983 City of Mississauga public works department.

 

[LowPolygon]