David Morrice

David Rousseaux Morrice

(1903-1978)

David R. Morrice was an artist within the circle of friendships of the Beaver Hall Group women. He was a student of Lilias Torrence Newton and Adam Sherriff Scott. He was a regular guest at the Lake Manitou, St. Agathe, home of the family which until now have owned these works. The same family occasionally hosted other artists including Sarah Robertson and Ethel Seath, and were patrons of Anne Savage and Kathleen Morris.

David was born in Toronto. His father, Arthur, was a brother of the artist James Wilson Morrice. David went to Upper Canada College and on to Appleby before going to McGill University. While he was a commerce student at McGill, he was a tennis player of great accomplishment, winner of intercollegiate tournaments and internationally as well. After a limited professional career in business, in the mid-1930s Morrice resumed his earlier interest in art, studying in Paris at the Académie Colarossi and at the Grande Chaumière (1936-37), then London Heatherley's School, London, England (1934-1936).

Come World War II Morrice had a distinguished military career, from 1940 first in the Royal Canadian Artillery and by 1944 as a Major with the First Canadian Army, Western Front. He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in June of 1945.

Shortly after receiving the OBE Morrice was transferred to the Canadian Intelligence Corps, returned to Canada, retired from active service by the end of 1945, and got back to his painting. Morrice had his first one man exhibition at Montreal’s now iconic Dominion Gallery in March of 1950, an exhibition reviewed in the Montreal Gazette (March 8, 1950). The exhibition included a few paintings of Lake Manitou and surroundings. The review notes Morrice’s, “Marked ability” and his “attention to form and colour ”. Blair Laing in, Morrice: A Great Canadian Artist Rediscovered writes of a visit to the home of David Morrice’s parents in Montreal on Pine Avenue in about 1948 where the artist, David, had a large studio. Laing notes that in the studio he had “dozens” of small sketches painted by his “Uncle Jim”. “Uncle Jim” was James Wilson Morrice, who had bequeathed to his brother Arthur, David’s father, a significant number of fine paintings by him.

Footnotes available here.