Charles Comfort (1900-1994) was a Scottish-Canadian who at the age of 12 immigrated to Winnipeg and shortly after found work as a commercial artist to support his family. By the time he was in his 30s, he was a proven talented artist in a variety of mediums -- watercolour, oil paints, friezes.^2^ In 1936, he was hired as a associate professor at the University of Toronto where he would teach historical painting techniques. He would work at the university for 25 years.
He was also highly renowned as a Canadian official war artist during the Second World War -- an artist who was officially commissioned by the government to paint depictions of the war. After 4 years as a rifle instructor in the training corps, Comfort was commisioned as a war artist and sent to Europe in 1943. He spent his time painting in the south of England, and subsequently in Italy once the Allies began occupying Southern Italy. Comfort would leave the Canadian army in 1946, returning to being a professor at the University of Toronto. He would later write a book, Artists at War regarding his experiences during the war.^3^
~Charles~ ~Comfort~ ~painting~ ~in~ ~the~ ~area~ ~around~ ~Ortona,~ ~Italy,~ ~on~ ~duty~ ~as~ ~a~ ~Canadian~ ~WWII~ ~war~ ~artist.~ 4
By the 1940s he also became a voice of authority within the art community of Canada. During the war, he had helped launch the WWII War Art Program. In 1941, he was an organizer of the Kingston Conference, a prominent meeting of Canadian artists of the time which would lead to the formation of the Federation of Canadian Artists.
This federation would then go on, with Comfort's contributions, to create the 1951 Massey Report. The Massey Report found that the Canadian cultural presence was lacking globally and was under threat from overwhelming foreign culture. This led to the creation of the Canada Council for the Arts, a crown corporation tasked with the mission to grow and foster the arts within Canada.
In 1959 Comfort would leave his job as a professor to become the director of the National Gallery of Canada. He was also a board member for the Art Gallery of Toronto and various other committees during this period after the war.
Charles comfort would go on to be a Officer of the Order of Canada in 1972 in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the nation. His legacy is seen with the preservation and continued tradition of an emphasized unique Canadian cultural heritage that persists to this day.
Charles Comfort wrote this to describe himself and his work in 1974:
"As an artist he is a humanist realist whose paintings are characterized by a spirit of ordered freedom and technical conservatism. For him, the visible world is the valid point of departure for a work of art. This does not mean that his purpose is to imitate nature, but rather to recreate it, remoulding and harmonizing it to agree with his own idiomatic mannerisms and his own personal concepts. He envisages his world as being inexhaustibly inspiring and meaningful."
Sources (All accessed 2025-07-29):
- “A Story of Canadian Art.” Kelowna Art Gallery, 2015. kelownaartgallery.com/a-story-of-canadian-art/. Origin of post image.
- "Charles Comfort - Canada at War" Canadian Art Junkie, 2017. canadianartjunkie.com/2017/03/12/8150-charles-comfort-canada-at-war/
- "Charles Comfort 1900 - 1994" Canadian War Museum. warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/comfort1eng.html
- Library and Archives Canada, btu taken from wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Comfort/
Read more: "Charles Hill Interview with Charles and Louise Comfort", Oct. 1973. National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives. Transcription created in 2008. "Artist Spotlight: Charles Comfort", Rookley's Canadian Art Blog, 2024. rookleys.com/blog/78-artist-spotlight-charles-comfort/
Notice: This is a very quick and rudimentary overview of Charles Comfort. Much of this information is put together by a poorly sourced wikipedia articles and from the afore-sourced materials above. The Library and Archives of Canada, as well as the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives both contain more information regarding Charles Comfort, but that information is not digitized or readily available for me to use at this time.
Perhaps one day if I move to Ottawa I can do a deeper dive into Charles Comfort by visiting the crown corporation museums' archives!