Memorable Manitobans: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald (1890-1956)

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Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald
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Painter.

Born at Winnipeg on 17 March 1890, son of Lionel Henry Fitzgerald (1864-1943) and Belle Dorothy Hicks (1863-1940), he spent his entire life there except for brief periods of art training in the United States and Montreal. He began exhibiting in 1911 and left a real estate job to work as an artist in 1912. In the period during and immediately after the First World War, he was commissioned to prepare honour rolls for a number of organizations and businesses.

He taught at the Winnipeg School of Art (1924-1949) and was its Principal (1929-1947). At an early age he moved to pointillism (“little strokes or spots of pigment,” he called it), particularly for landscapes, and he was much influenced by Cézanne and Seurat. In 1932 he was invited to join the Group of Seven. During the 1930s he was very impressed by the Bauhaus movement, which influenced his educational philosophy at the School of Art. After his retirement in 1949 he shifted entirely to abstractionism. The University of Manitoba awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1952. He was often linked with Bertram Brooker.

On 22 November 1912, he married Felicia Wright (1890-1962) and they had two children, Lionel Edward FitzGerald (1916-?) and Patricia LeMoine FitzGerald (1919-1976, wife of Hugh Witney Morrison).

He died at the Winnipeg General Hospital, following a heart attack, on 5 August 1956. A collection of his papers are held by the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.

In 2004, he was inducted posthumously into the Winnipeg Citizens Hall of Fame. He is commemorated by the Fitzgerald Building at the Fort Garry campus of the University of Manitoba and Fitzgerald Crescent in Winnipeg. His Winnipeg home at 30 Deer Lodge Place is commemorated by the Memorable Manitobans: The Homes program.

Among his artistic works were the following honour rolls, the present whereabouts of many being unknown:

Date

Description

Commissioned by

Notes

Price

9 September 1915

St. Matthews Church

Richardson Brothers

Honor Roll

2.15

5 January 1916

Grain Growers Grain Company

Grain Growers Grain Company

Roll of Honor

30.00

17 March 1916

Bannatyne School

Mr. Bannatyne

Honor Roll with frame

18.00

22 April 1916

Bank of Montreal

Richardson Brothers

1 Roll of Honor

2.00

9 May 1916

La Verendrye School

Captain Clipperton

Honor Roll

20.00

27 May 1916

Pilot Mound

Dr. H. M. Speechly

Honor Roll

35.00

2 June 1916

Young Methodist Church

Russell Lang & Company

Honour Roll

30.00

10 June 1916

Sidney Public School

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll of Honor

15.75

13 June 1916

Scott Memorial

Richardson Brothers

Lettering Honour Roll

2.00

26 June 1916

Norway House

Russell Lang & Company

1 Honor Roll

15.00

17 July 1916

Harper [illegible]

Russell Lang & Company

1 Honor Roll

3.00

17 July 1916

Willowview

Russell Lang & Company

1 Honor Roll

1.75

19 July 1916

Dominion Bank

?

1 Roll of Honor

17.50

20 July 1916

St. David's Society

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll of Honor

16.50

17 August 1916

Royal Crown Bank

?

1 Honor Roll

20.00

1 September 1916

Holy Trinity Anglican Killarney

Russell Lang & Company

1 Honor Roll

1.00

7 September 1916

Edra [illegible]

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll of Honor

7.00

15 September 1916

Mulvey Memorial

Russell Lang & Company

1 Honor Roll

6.00

14 October 1916

Central School

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll of Honor

18.00

20 October 1916

Emerson [illegible]

Russell Lang & Company

1 Honor Roll

1.75

28 October 1916

Emmanuel Church

Russell Lang & Company

1 Honor Roll

5.00

17 November 1916

Russell

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll of Honor

4.00

17 November 1916

Young Men [illegible]

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll of Honor

4.00

25 November 1916

Holy Trinity

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll of Honor

8.50

7 December 1916

St. Matthews Boissevain

Richardson Brothers

1 Roll of Honor

16.00

12 December 1916

Greenwood Church

Richardson Brothers

1 Roll

7.00

2 January 1917

Shoal Lake

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

1.00

3 January 2017

Belmont

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll of Honor

4.00

27 January 1917

Wesley College

?

1 Roll of Honour

40.00

30 January 1917

IODE Fort Garry

Richardson Brothers

Roll of Honour

12.00

15 February 1917

St. Georges Wakefield

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll of Honor

4.50

3 March 1917

Lounay [?]

Richardson Brothers

1 Roll of Honor

3.30

10 March 1917

[St.?] Charles Golf Club

Richardson Brothers

 

12.00

21 March 1917

M. Doctors

Richardson Brothers

1 Roll of Honor

12.00

23 March 1917

Miami Council No. 118 Rt. of ?

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

3.00

23 March 1917

The Pas Lodge

Russell Lang & Company

 

3.00

27 March 1917

Fifeshire Association

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

10.00

31 March 1917

Moving [?] Picture

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

6.00

3 April 1917

Silverwood Union Sunday School

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

12.00

7 April 1917

Pierson Man.

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

3.00

11 April 1917

Lyleton [illegible]

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

1.75

11 April 1917

Portage la Prairie

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

2.50

18 April 1917

Russell [illegible]

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

5.50

25 April 1917

Springfield

Russell Lang & Company

Roll 38 names

2.00

30 April 1917

Sutton P.L.P. [Portage la Prairie?]

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

2.50

4 May 1917

Holmfield

Russell Lang & Company

Roll names

2.25

10 May 1917

Progress Lodge 1057 Basswood

Richardson Brothers

1 Roll

6.50

18 May 1917

Sanford

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

20.00

31 May 1917

St. Barnabas Church

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

5.50

5 June 1917

Great West Electric Co.

Richardson Brothers

1 Roll

2.40

22 June 1917

Sweatman etc.

Richardson Brothers

1 Roll of Honor

40.00

23 June 1917

Tyndale [Tyndall?]

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll of Honor

3.00

23 June 1917

Elkwood Dist.

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll of Honor

6.50

5 July 1917

Franklin Gordon M. Ch.

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

5.00

6 July 1917

Christ Church

Russell Lang & Company

New list roll

5.00

14 July 1917

Osler, Hammond & Nanton

?

Roll including frame etc.

58.00

31 July 1917

Fort Rouge Methodist Church

T. Eaton Company

Roll

4.00

17 October 1917

High Bluff

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

4.00

17 October 1917

Kenton

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

3.75

10 November 1917

Sidney Man.

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

4.00

22 November 1917

Dauphin Collegiate

Richardson Brothers

1 Roll

14.00

3 December 1917

Scotia Presbyterian Church

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

6.50

6 December 1917

Christ Church

?

New list Honor Roll

6.00

19 December 1917

Ochre River

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

35.00

27 December 1917

Wesley Church

Russell Lang & Company

Roll

25.00

16 January 1918

IODE Red River

Richardson Brothers

Honor Roll

20.00

25 January 1918

Wood Vallance

Richardson Brothers

1 Roll of Honor

32.00

11 March 1918

St. Boniface Nurses

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

8.50

31 May 1918

Gladstone School

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

11.00

7 June 1918

Grace Church Sunday School

?

1 Roll

5.00

19 September 1918

Deloraine Methodist Church

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

8.00

19 November 1918

Solsgirth

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

3.00

8 March 1919

Tabernacle Church

Richardson Brothers

1 Roll

20.00

12 April 1919

Wesley

Richardson Brothers

Roll

18.00

14 April 1919

Goodlands

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

12.00

20 May 1919

Crystal City

Russell Lang & Company

1 Roll

13.50

20 October 1919

Starbuck

Richardson Brothers

1 Honor Roll

8.00

26 January 1920

Neveton [?]

Richardson Brothers

1 Roll of Honor

5.60

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald Plaque (Bruce Park, Winnipeg)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Chemistry and Physics Building / Earth Sciences Building / Fitzgerald Building (55 Chancellors Circle, Winnipeg)

First World War Honour Rolls by L. L. FitzGerald by Michael Parke-Taylor
Prairie History, Number 6, Fall 2021

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald: The Development of an Artist by Winnipeg Art Gallery (1978).

Progress Passing through the Spirit: The Modernist Vision of Bertram Brooker and Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald by Carole Francis Luff (1980)

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald: Life & Work by Michael Parke-Taylor, The Canadian Art Library, Art Canada Institute, 2019.

Into the Light: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald by Sarah Milroy, Ian A. C. Dejardin, and Michael Parke-Taylor, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2019.

Sources:

1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.

Birth, marriage, and death registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

Obituary [Lionel Henry Fitzgerald], Winnipeg Free Press, 13 December 1943, page 4.

“Famed city artist, L. L. Fitzgerald dies,” Winnipeg Free Press, 6 August 1956, page 1.

“Painter’s widow dies in Toronto,” Winnipeg Tribune, 8 October 1962, page 2.

Death registration [Patricia LeMoine Morrison], British Columbia Vital Statistics.

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

We thank Michael Parke-Taylor for providing information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 23 February 2023

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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