O-461

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painting (portrait)

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The Honourable William Ross Macdonald

Portrait of Speaker William Ross Macdonald

William Ross Macdonald was a lawyer born in Toronto in 1891. As a Canadian infantryman he was badly wounded during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. He was elected to Parliament, on his third attempt, in 1935, and remained in the House for 18 years. He was made Speaker in 1945, endorsed by government and opposition. He banned the playing of musical instruments in the House in 1950 after a member played a flute. In 1953 he was appointed to the Senate, where he was government leader until he retired in 1964. He died in 1976. His portrait was painted in 1951 by Lilias Torrance Newton.

Lilias Torrance Newton

Lilias Torrance Newton, born in 1896 in Lachine, Quebec, was a founding member of both the influential Beaver Hall Group and Canadian Group of Painters. She studied in Montreal, Paris and London, and served with the Red Cross in England during the First World War. She established a studio in Montreal and became one of Canada’s most important artists, with approximately 300 portraits that “conveyed sympathy for her subjects and an understanding of character” says the National Gallery of Canada. Her work, influenced by impressionism, stands out among the traditional realism of official Parliamentary portraiture. She died in 1980.