- Katharine A. Lochnan
Extract
(b nr Caledonia, Ont., Oct 14, 1848; d Toronto, March 27, 1924).
Canadian banker, collector and museum founder. He joined the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1868 and became its president in 1907. He pursued a variety of interests, including palaeontology, botany, music, literature and art. He travelled extensively in North and South America, Europe, China and Japan, looking at art and architecture and visiting museums, private collections and artists’ studios. He built a modest collection, which included two views by Francesco Guardi of St Mark’s, Venice (Ottawa, N.G.), and a number of Hague and Barbizon school paintings. While in New York he began to collect intaglio prints, including impressions by Rembrandt, Dürer and Whistler (Toronto, A.G. Ont.). He also assembled a superb collection of 5000 Japanese ukiyoe prints, which were given to the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
The unrivalled leader of the museum movement in Canada, Walker founded the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1900 and the Royal Ontario Museum (both in Toronto) in ...
