William Valentine (painter)

William Valentine - Self Portrait

William Valentine (1798 in Whitehaven, England; d. 26 Dec. 1849 in Halifax, Nova Scotia) was a portrait painter who immigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1818. He was a relative and pupil of Robert Field (painter). Valentine’s earliest paintings date from 1827. His main interest was in portraits, but he occasionally depicted historical subjects, such as King John signing Magna Charta, done about 1830 and now in the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. About 1836 Valentine travelled to England, where he studied the well-known painters of the day such as Sir Thomas Lawrence and made copies of their works. The experience had a noticeable effect on his painting, which improved markedly in tone and colour; and from the time he returned about March 1837 until 1844 he enjoyed his best success. A few years before his death a fire in his studio destroyed many of his pictures and damaged his photographic apparatus, and this disaster is said to have hastened his end. It is not known how many portraits Valentine executed – the historian Harry Piers estimated between 125 and 150 – and there has never been a comprehensive exhibition of his work. However, after Field he was the most important portrait painter in early 19th-century Nova Scotia. He is buried in Camp Hill Cemetery, Halifax.

Works

• Dr William Grigor, 1st president, Halifax Mechanics’ Institute (1831)
• John Howe for Howe’s son Joseph Howe (1832)
• Samuel George William Archibald
• Thomas Chandler Haliburton
• Brenton Halliburton
• John Young and his son William
• Peter Nordbeck
• John Sparrow Thompson
• Alexander Keith*, and well over 100 other eminent Nova Scotians and their wives.
• Andrew MacKinlay*, president of the Mechanics’ Institute (1849)

, which was presented to that institution in October 1849.

References

• Canadian Biography Online