Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook


Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook, CM, O.Ont was a Canadian portrait sculptor, medal designer and liturgical artist.

Education and training

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 7, 1913, Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook was the great-great-granddaughter of the Hon. John Willson, the first speaker for the House in Upper Canada. Holbrook studied at the Hamilton Art School, Ontario College of Art, Royal College of Art in London, England and at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She studied under such artists as Hortense Gordon, John S. Gordon, John Sloan, Gustav Hahn, Emanuel Hahn, Rowley Murphy, and Carl Milles.
She was a lecturer in Sculpture at Dundas Valley School of Art from 1965 to 1969., at the Burlington Cultural Centre from 1990-1993 and at McMaster University, Faculty of Arts in Hamilton, Ontario from 1995-1999. Holbrook’s portrait sculptures are represented in over 50 public collections worldwide.

Subjects

Holbrook's subjects included HM Queen Elizabeth II; William Osler; Ellen Fairclough; John Diefenbaker; Emanuel Hahn; Henry Moore; among many others. Her works include the bronze 24' standing figure of a Royal Military College of Canada cadet 1979, which was a gift of the Royal Military College Club. She also produced a bronze bust of Colonel George Stanley, a former Royal Military College professor, who designed the Canadian Flag. In 1996 she completed a sculpture of George Bernard Shaw for the then-new plaza in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Her last commissioned sculptures were that of Conrad Black and his wife Barbara Amiel created in 2000 and 2002 respectively.

Architectural sculptures

Federal Building, Hamilton, Ontario. Eight large mezzo relief stone panels depicting wildlife and industry.

Memberships

Holbrook died of natural causes in Hamilton on February 23, 2009. She is buried at St. John's Anglican Church, Ancaster, Ontario alongside her husband "Jack" Holbrook and her son William "Billy" Holbrook. The family is interred next to a liturgical headstone designed by Holbrook.

Influenced

Holbrook mentored and influenced Canadian sculptor Christian Cardell Corbet.