Collection: CPE

Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers (circa 1919 – 1976)

The Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers (CPE) was an arts collective formed with the purpose of creating and promoting the art of printmaking in Canada. Members included Clarence A. Gagnon, Edwin H. Holgate, David Milne, Albert Dumouchel, Fred S. Haines, W.J. Phillips, George A. Reid, Owen Staples, and William James Thomson, who is credited with organizing the first exhibition of original prints in Canada in 1885. Printmaking included woodblocks, etchings, engravings, and lithographs, all mediums that had been mostly used (and abused) chiefly in the advertising industry leading up to the turn of the 20^th century; the CPE, along with its predecessors (the Mahlstick Club and Graphic Arts Club, among others), was fundamental to the motivation and reinvigoration of Canadian printmaking culture.

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