Biography of ROBERT DAVID SYMONS

SYMONS, Robert David (1898-1973). Born in Mayfield, Sussex, England, Symons studied under his father, William Christian Symons. He came to Saskatchewan in 1913 and settled in Silton in 1916. Working in watercolour and ink, his subjects include the prairie landscape, native genre, and western scenes with cattle, horses and cowboys. He is also known for his painted murals and wildlife dioramas in the Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History, Regina. He worked as a rancher in Saskatchewan and British Columbia (1919-1927), game warden in Saskatchewan (1927-1942), for the British Columbia Provincial Police (1943-1945), and rancher in Fort St. John, British Columbia (1946-1961) when he turned to painting full-time and settled in Silton until his death. At this time, he also wrote several books including Many Trails (Toronto 1963), Hours and the Birds (Toronto 1967), The Broken Snare (Garden City 1970), and Silton Seasons (Toronto 1975), and taught art at the University of Regina in the 1960s and 1970s. He was a member of the Canadian Authors’ Association, the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild, and the Saskatchewan Natural History Society, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Saskatoon, Sask-atchewan in 1970. He held solo exhibitions of his work at the NMAG in 1970 and with his father at the EAG in 1975. His work is in the collections of the GM, NMAG and SAB.

 

Biography courtesy of the Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction: Volume IV: S-Z

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