By Nancy Miller Chenier
When the national art collection was moved to the new gallery at the corner of Sussex and St Patrick it completed a circle that began more than 100 years before. Our national art collection started at the corner of Sussex and George at an exhibition organized by the fledgling Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA).
The Marquis of Lorne, then governor-general, and his wife Princess Louise encouraged the foundation of the RCA and opened the exhibition in March 1880. At the opening, the Governor-General recognized the differing English and French traditions and suggested that this exhibition “where we have a people sprung from both races…should be able to combine these excellencies.”
The exhibition was deemed a success with a large number of artists showing works judged to be “far above the average”. Lucius O’Brien, first president of the Academy, submitted Sunrise on the Saguenay, Cape Trinity as his diploma work. Charlotte Schreiber, the first woman elected to the Academy, submitted Croppy Boy (The Confession of an Irish Patriot). Both of these works are currently on display at the National Gallery.
Although the RCA showed Canadians that there was merit in art produced in Canada, the organization’s constitution and rules signaled the limited aesthetic that would shape the Canadian art scene for the next century. Works of painting, sculpture and design were allowed, but areas where women dominated –needlework, cut paper and coloured wax models–were not.
The building at 541 Sussex that housed the 1880 exhibition is an example of ongoing adaptive reuse. Lucien Brault recorded that Donald MacArthur built the first hotel in Bytown on the site in 1827. As the Ottawa Hotel it served as accommodation for travelers but also as public reading room that pre-dated any Ottawa library. Renamed the British Hotel and later Clarendon House, it was enlarged over the years and in the mid-1860s was temporarily requisitioned to be a military barracks during the Fenian crisis.
In 1880, the federal government acquired the building to house the Geological and Natural History Survey, but first provided the space for the inauguration of the RCA. From 1881 to 1911 it contained museum exhibits, a library, a mapping office and laboratories for preparing natural history specimens, analyzing geological materials and drawing and copying maps before being turned over to the Department of Mines.
In 1955, the building was recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada. In 1967, Sussex Street was renamed Sussex Drive. In the 1980s, under the custodianship of the National Capital Commission, its exterior was returned to an appearance closer to its 1880s style without the verandas.
A little over 100 years after that first showing of Canadian art in Lowertown, the federal government announced the selection of the current National Gallery site at Sussex and St Patrick. Today, Lowertown’s visual art scene continues to thrive with numerous private galleries, the Ottawa School of Art and, of course, the National Gallery of Canada. At least part of their success is attributable to that early art exhibition at 541 Sussex.