James Wilson Morrice: Painter of Light and Shadow

Speaker: Wayne Larsen
When: Thursday, May 20, 2027, 7:30 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Where: Centennial Hall,
             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period
The life of Montreal artist James Wilson Morrice (1865-1924) was a study in relentless travel and whisky-soaked non-conformity. He embraced Impressionism at a time when it was ridiculed by critics and collectors alike, and chose to live in a dirty old studio on the Paris waterfront, thousands of kilometres from his wealthy family’s Golden Square Mile mansion.
With “Painter of Light and Shadow,” artist and Morrice biographer Wayne Larsen presents the colourful life and work of one of Canada’s most famous and influential artists — a pioneer of modern art whose diverse network of friends included the most famous names of La Belle Époque, from Claude Monet to (possibly) Jack the Ripper.

Wayne Larsen is a Quebec-based artist, writer, university professor, and a past director of Canada’s Institute for Investigative Journalism. He was educated at Champlain College and Concordia University, where he earned BA and MA degrees in Journalism. Concurrent to a 20-year academic career on the Faculty of Journalism at Concordia, he published hundreds of features, reviews, humour pieces and cartoons in many publications, including the Toronto Star and Montreal Gazette. He was a copy editor at Reader’s Digest Canada, and editor-in-chief of the award-winning Westmount Examiner. He has written four books on Canadian art, including works on Tom Thomson and James Wilson Morrice. His 2009 biography of A.Y. Jackson, The Life of a Landscape Painter (Dundurn Press), was a Globe and Mail bestseller. He is a jury member of the annual Global Art League competition, and a consulting expert in authenticating works of Canadian art. As an artist himself, he has produced a large body of landscape paintings, primarily of the Laurentians.

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