O-446

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painting (portrait)

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The Honourable Roland Michener

Portrait of Speaker Roland Michener

Roland Michener was born in 1900 in Lacombe, Alberta, the son of Senator Edward Michener. He became a lawyer and was elected to Parliament as a Progressive Conservative in 1953. He was made Speaker in 1957 and established himself as fair to all parties, sometimes to the dismay of the government. Impressed observers campaigned to make him permanent Speaker, and he later declined the permanent Speakership when offered by Liberal Prime Minister Lester Pearson. In 1967 he was appointed governor general of Canada. He died in 1991.

Cleve Horne appears to have used natural light while painting Michener’s portrait in 1962, a change from prior official portraits.

Cleeve Horne

Cleeve Horne was born in Jamaica in 1912 and his family moved to Toronto when he was a boy. By his teenaged years he was exhibiting his art to acclaim. He studied at the Ontario College of Art and in England, and married the sculptor Jean Mildred Horne. He painted hundreds of portraits of prominent Canadians and his work is held in public and private collections across the country. He started his career in sculpture, the influence of which is evident in the sculpted visage of his subject in his official portrait of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker.