User:Artisforme/CSPWC's Royal Collection Project

The Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colourʼs Royal Collection Project is a group of seventy-five contemporary Canadian watercolours held in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, U.K. as part of the Royal Collection. They form the single largest Canadian presence within the collection.

The initial sixty piece collection was formed in 1985 as part of the Diamond Anniversary celebrations of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour [CSPWC]. Each watercolour in the collection was created by a different elected member of the Society. The paintings were unveiled December 5, 1985 in an exhibition at the MacDonald Gallery [now the John B. Aird Gallery] in the Ontario Legislative Buildings. They were later shown at Ontario House, King Charles Place, London, U.K. [13 March - 24 April 1986] where an official reception and handover to the Royal Collection took place on March 12, 1986. A second display of the collection at Ontario House took place in 1988.

The paintings are housed in the Print Room of the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. They form part of the Royal Collection of Drawings and Watercolours. A selection was on public display in the castle throughout 1986 and 1987.

In 2000 as part of the CSPWCʼs seventy-fifth anniversary celebrations a competition was held among elected members not represented in the original sixty piece collection to select fifteen additional works to add to the Windsor Castle holdings. This brought the group up to the symbolic]total of seventy-five.

The selected works were then exhibited at Torontoʼs OʼConnor Gallery and later at The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, site of the 1925 founding of the Society.

The watercolours were transported to the United Kingdom and exhibited by the Government of Canada in Canada House, Trafalgar Square, throughout December of 2001. His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, an Honourary Member of the Society, accepted the works at a reception hosted by the both the CSPWC and Jeremy Kinsman the Canadian High Commissioner to the U.K.

The final phase of this project will take place during the CSPWCʼs centennial year in 2025 when a competition will be held among elected members unrepresented in the Royal Collection. At that time twenty five watercolours will be selected and added to the holdings in the Royal Library.

Initial concept
As the 1985 “Diamond” or sixtieth anniversary of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour approached the Societyʼs executive decided to launch a series of commemorative events that would highlight the history and achievements of the organization. One suggestion was that a collection of watercolours by Society members be compiled and placed with a major national cultural body. It was thought that a juried collection of sixty works would be appropriate. This idea met with strong support and the proposal was presented to a number of institutions including Rideau Hall, The National Gallery of Canada, The Royal Ontario Museum, The Art Gallery of Ontario and several major university galleries.

The idea took on the name of the “Diamond Jubilee Collection” and it seemed to be a relatively straight forward project of identifying a host institution and then jurying and collecting sixty works. Sensibly, as it turned out, the original concept had envisioned small paintings in case the Society was asked to submit them in albums, portfolios or presentation cases.

In 1984 William Sherman, the CSPWCʼs President, asked Anthony J. Batten, one of its directors, to serve as Chairperson for the project.

The Royal Collection


In dialogue with the various Canadian institutions that had been approached it became obvious that there were an insurmountable number of obstacles that had to be overcome. Many foundations required that donations in kind be accompanied by substantial financial endowments something that a financially fragile arts organization could not contemplate. Several institutions wanted only part of the developing collection. Others did not want the CSPWC involved in the selection of its own collection. Still other public bodies never responded to the offer at all.

It became apparent that what had started as a gesture of good citizenship and positive recognition of the historic role that the Society had played in the history of Canadian visual arts was becoming a logistical quagmire. While this was happening a growing collection of submissions was accumulating.

While traveling Batten looked for some reading material and chanced upon a book on the history of the Royal Collection in which there was mention of several different Commonwealth countries and the objects that represented them among the diverse holdings of the Royal Family. Despite Canadaʼs unparalleled role within the Empire and Commonwealth he noted that there was no mention of his home country. Acting on intuition he wrote to the bookʼs author Sir Robin Macworth-Young who was also the Royal Librarian and proposed that the Diamond Jubilee Collection be presented to H.M. The Queen to commemorate the Societyʼs anniversary and to partly correct an obvious imbalance in the collection. On his return home a waiting letter informed him that should the CSPWC decide to offer the collection, Her Majesty The Queen would be delighted to accept it.

Since 1985 the Society has taken some criticism from individuals unfamiliar with the history of the endeavour for being unpatriotic and donating the collection to an institution outside the country. The CSPWC believes it responsibly placed the works in a major international art resource with impeccable conservation standards where they were and are available for study by scholars, for exhibition and loans. For all of the artists represented in the gift, even those represented in major Canadian museums, the opportunity to have a work enter the Royal Collections in perpetuity became a significant career marker.

The Project Chairperson commented on the delight that was felt when a year or so after the original Canadian negotiations had stalled two institutions contacted the Society inquiring if the possible gift of the collection was still on offer. The fact that the watercolours were by then at Windsor Castle was validation of the original concept and of the generosity of both the individual artists and the CSPWC.

Original 1985 collection and donation
A general call for entry went out to all elected members of the CSPWC early in 1984 and a jurying took place in the summer of 1985. The artists and works selected were:

2000 addition of fifteen works: CSPWC gift II
Following the procedures used in the initial jurying process a call for entries went out to all eligible members early in the 2000 anniversary year. A tremendous number of entries were presented for the jurying which took place in Trinity College Chapel, University of Toronto. The artists and works selected for this second phase of what was now known as the “Royal Collection project” were: