William Edwin Atkinson

William Edwin Atkinson (1862-1926)

William Edwin Atkinson was born in Toronto. He initially studied at the Central Ontario School of Art, later continuing his education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under Thomas Eakins; during his time in Pennsylvania, Atkinson shared a room with Donald McNab and G.A. Reid. Like many of his contemporaries at the time, Atkinson decided to study abroad in Europe at the Academie Julian and the Academie Delance in 1889. Atkinson stayed in Paris for a few years more, winning himself a prize at the Salon d'Apollon in the Louvre in 1891. Following his sojourn in Paris, Atkinson returned to Toronto, where he built a reputation for himself as a landscape painter. Atkinson became a founding member of the Canadian Arts Club in 1907. Atkinson’s work is held within the National Gallery of Canada, the Government of Ontario Art Collection, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.