Charles Goldhamer

Charles Goldhamer (1903-1985) OSA, CPE

Charles Goldhamer was born in Philadelphia and came with his parents to Canada when he was three years old. He received his initial training at the Ontario College of Art (now OCAD), studying with Arthur Lismer. Following his graduation in 1926, Goldhamer found work at T. Eaton’s advertising and soon began exhibiting with various artistic societies, including the Royal Canadian Academy, the Ontario Society of Artists, the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, and the Canadian Society of Graphic Art. In 1929, Goldhamer published a portfolio of lithographs entitled Lithography of Ontario. Goldhamer later took up teaching, working first at the OCA before finding a post at the Central Technical School in Toronto, where he continued to teach until the outbreak of the Second World War. Goldhamer was appointed as one of Canada’s Official War Artists and he spent most of his time in Ottawa and overseas with the R.C.A.F.; “’I especially wanted to emphasize the work of people who keep pilots flying…people who mend shoes work in the kitchen, fuel and bomb aircraft, drive trucks and generally do the routine jobs that had to be done to keep the squadron going,’” Goldhamer once said (Toronto’s Telegram, 1945). Following the war, Goldhamer continued teaching at Central Technical. Goldhamer's work is held within the collections of the Canadian War Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, among other institutions. 

Source: MacDonald, Colin S. Dictionary of Canadian Artists. Volume 2