CHARLES FRASER COMFORT (1900-1994)

Charles Comfort helped shape Canada's artistic identity through a career that united creative practice, education and cultural leadership. As an instructor in mural painting at the Ontario College of Art (OCA, now OCAD University), he brought the perspective of a working artist whose experience spanned commercial design, fine art and public commissions. He also contributed to the establishment of the Canada Council for the Arts and was an active member of several prominent artists’ societies. 

Comfort began his career as a commercial artist in Winnipeg, using his salary to support his studies at the Winnipeg School of Art. During a temporary transfer to Toronto, he attended the Group of Seven’s inaugural exhibition in 1920, which inspired him to explore landscape painting throughout his life.¹

In 1932, Comfort was commissioned to design a mural for Toronto's North American Life Building, the first of many public murals he completed. His well-known public murals include an exterior frieze for the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Art Deco bas-reliefs inside Montreal’s Central Station.

During the Second World War, Comfort served as an official war artist, creating a lasting record of Canada's military experience. Building on Canada's First World War art tradition, he helped establish the country's Second World War Art Program before serving overseas as an official war artist. He later published his wartime experiences in the 1956 book Artist at War.

After the war, he continued to strengthen Canada's cultural landscape through leadership roles with major arts organizations. He contributed to the 1951 Massey Report, which led to the creation of the Canada Council for the Arts and later became the only practising artist to serve as director of the National Gallery of Canada. 

Learn more about Charles Comfort

¹ Canadian Encyclopedia, Charles Fraser Comfort, 2015

² Canadian War Museum, Charles Comfort

Image credit: Art Deco Montreal