Date Published:
February 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Henry Ivan Neilson

Neilson, Henry Ivan (1865-1931), painter and etcher, was born at Quebec, on June 27, 1865, the youngest of thirteen children of John Neilson, D.L.S., and grandson of the Hon. John Neilson. He became a marine engineer, and was for a number of years in the service of the Canadian Pacific Ocean Steamships. He turned to painting, however, in 1897, and studied art at the Glasgow School of Fine Arts, at the Académie de la Clausse, Paris, and at St. Giles Academy, Brussels. He lived in Scotland until 1910, when he returned to Canada, and was elected an A.R.C.A. While primarily a landscape painter, he also used many figure subjects; and in his later years he devoted much attention to etching. He is represented by many etchings both in the National Gallery, Ottawa , and in the Quebec Museum. He became a member of the teaching staff of the New School of Fine Arts at Quebec in 1921, and in 1929 he was appointed its principal. He died at Quebec on April 27, 1931.

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. IV, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 400p., p. 388.