Owen Staples

Owen Staples, also known as Owen Poe Staples (September 3, 1866 - December 6, 1949), was a Canadian painter, etcher, pastelist, political cartoonist, author, musician and naturalist.

Staples' family arrived in Hamilton, ON from England in 1872. Abandoned by their father, the family moved to Rochester, NY in 1876. After Staples' mother died in 1881, he was hired as a messenger boy at the Rochester Art Club where he was given the nickname Poe. There he began his art training with Horatio Walker and Harvey Ellis. In 1885, after nine years in the United States, Staples moved to Toronto, ON to study under George Agnew Reid. That same year, he was hired by John Ross Robertson, founder of the Toronto Telegram. Granted a leave of absence by Robertson, Staples moved to Philadelphia in 1886 for two years of study under Thomas Eakins and Thomas Pollock Anshutz at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

From 1888 to 1908, Staples worked for the Telegram as a staff artist, reporter and political cartoonist, and illustrator for the J. Ross Robertson Collection. The Battle of York is an example from this collection. Thereafter, Staples became a well known artist, illustrating a number of books, executing commissioned murals, and producing a vast oeuvre of paintings, watercolours and etchings. Robertson also commissioned Staples to paint several large canvases of historical subjects. Seven of these works now hang in Toronto`s New City Hall. He continued to write and illustrate a vast number of articles for the Telegram on subjects of his own choosing.

In 1905, Tom Thomson came under the influence of his cousin Dr. William Brodie. Brodie was the director of Biology at the Ontario Provincial Museum, the precursor of the Royal Ontario Museum. Brodie and Staples frequently explored the Don River valley together and young Thomson often accompanied them. Thomson scholar Joan Murray wrote: "Thomson also learned from Brodie how to collect specimens; as a young man, he accompanied his relative on collecting trips." Staples, who was rarely without his paintbox easel, illustrated treatises for Brodie who consulted on natural history articles written for the Telegram by Staples. The artistic but inexperienced Thomson was intrigued by Staples, a master watercolourist, who made every effort to 'catch the light' with his quickly rendered pictures.

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