Born in Cambridge, England, he arrived in Toronto with his parents in 1881. At the age of 24 he first studied art with F. McGillivray Knowles in Toronto and continued intermittently for six years (1902-08). He went back to England where he studied at the Heatherley School of Fine Art, London (1908-9) and the London School of Art (c. 1909-11). He gave classes in St. Ives, Cornwall where one of his students was Henrietta Hancock who later became known for her seascapes and portraits. They married and lived in England until 1914. Returning to Toronto, Britton augmented his income by giving private lessons (c. 1914-21). He travelled with his wife and they both painted and exhibited many marine and coastal scenes. Harry Britton was active in the art community and was a member of the OSA (1907-08) (1915-21); ARCA (1908), RCA (1934) and exhibited annually with these societies. His work was influenced by the traditional 19th Century English and French Schools. His portraits have a soft luminescent quality. He is represented in the NGC by five paintings all of which were painted in oils on canvas or wood. For smaller works like The Thames, London (AGO) he used cardboard. His painting Interior of a Sail Loft (1912), in the NGC, is an especially fine work which has a fisherman mending his sail as the focal point, with the folds of the sail falling like rhythmic furrows curving towards the lower part of the picture, balanced by the interior walls and window of the loft in the upper part. Britton and his wife lived again in England 1921-25. They travelled in France, Netherlands and Italy. Following their return to Canada they lived in Nova Scotia (1925-34). Harry Britton died (1958) in Toronto at the age of 80. His wife died (1963) at the age of 90.
Colin S. MacDonald
A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker
National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada