Philip Henry Howard Surrey

Notes:

signed
Provenance: Kastel Gallery, Westmount, QC (label verso)

Born in Calgary, to an adventurer father, and an artistic mother who taught him to sketch at an early age. Surrey moved around extensively for the first ten years of his life, spending time in exotic locations all over the world. He became good at watching and listening. While his upbringing was rich, his formal education was sporadic. He returned to Canada secretly with his mother in 1921, moving to a Manitoba farm, then to Winnipeg on his own at age 14. It is here that he began his formal artistic education, earning an apprenticeship at Brigden’s in the commercial art department. He began attending classes at the Winnipeg School of Art, under LeMoine FitzGerald and George Overton. Later, he studied under Jock MacDonald and F. H. Varley, at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts. In 1937, after a short period of studies in New York, Surrey settled in Montreal. Here, he spent the following twenty-five years dividing his time between his art and working at the Standard (Weekend Magazine), until his employer afforded him an opportunity to paint full-time. Surrey exhibited successfully and prolifically for the next twenty years. He is best known for his visceral urban scenes, and for his expressive figurative paintings. Surrey captures the duality of human existence in a poetic way: portraying his subjects at once as both social and solitary creatures.

Notes:

signed lower left; titled and dated on the gallery label

Provenance: The Upstairs Gallery, Winnipeg MB (label verso)

The nighttime streets of Montreal, lit by glowing streetlights, neon signs and the cars passing through, were Philip Surrey’s domain. Though originally Calgary-born, from 1937 until his death in 1990, Surrey lived and based most of his subject matter in Quebec’s largest city. In the morning and evenings outside of his work at the Montreal Gazette, he spent time walking the aging, urban streets. Here, he would observe life in the lonely hours after dark, translating it to moody and mysterious scenes in paint, rife with a lonely quality that place Surrey’s work in the camp of other night-dwelling artists like Hopper and Wyeth.

Rue Sanguinet is in the Ville Marie borough of Montreal, and historically was host to all walks of life; in the early 20th century, it marked the eastern boundary of the city’s Red-Light District. Surrey’s viewpoint can be found on foot by entering Rue Sanguinet from Sherbrooke Street East, looking downhill. While there are no visible figures in the composition, there are many signs of life: the shiny red taillights of the vehicles reflect on the wet street as they pass by; lit windows peppered across the facades of old buildings; down the street, a green glow emanates from something happening on a side street. “He sees the threadbare streets,” Kenneth Saltmarche wrote of Surrey and his paintings in 1972, “the habitues of pubs and clubs … the wet pavements, the traffic, pedestrians … garish sideboards, streetlights; and combines these various elements into images of haunting beauty.”

Reference: Saltmarche, Kenneth. “Colour from Montreal”. The Windsor Star, Sat. Nov. 18, 1972, p. 49

Notes:

signed
Provenance: Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal