George Adrian Cuthbertson


George Adrian Cuthbertson was a Canadian artist, researcher, and author. He was born in Toronto, Ontario.

Early life and training

He studied at the Toronto Model School, the University of Toronto, and the Westmount Academy in Montreal, Quebec. He studied with John David Kelly in Toronto and with William Brymner at the Art Association of Montreal, Quebec. At 13, he worked in the summer on a steamer as an able bodied seaman in Montreal.

Military service

He entered the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario in 1914, but left after one year. At age 17, he joined the Dover Patrol of the Royal Canadian Navy. At the time, he was the Navy's youngest commissioned officer. He served from 1915 to 1918, on trawlers, mine sweepers, and mine layers. Upon leaving the service, he operated a woollen mill at Thurso, Quebec, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He died there in 1969.

Professional career

Along with Paul Caron, Cuthbertson illustrated Blodwen Davies’ book about the Saguenay River, Saguenay,. Cuthbertson also authored and illustrated Freshwater, a history of the Great Lakes, published by MacMillan, in 1931.
He became a prominent marine painter, exhibiting in major centres in Canada and the United States. His works are found in the collection of the National Archives of Canada, the Canada Steamship Lines Maritime Collection and various North American marine museums.
The Canada Steamship Lines exhibited his fully worked watercolours and maps with accompanying catalogues, in 1928 and 1942. In 1942, the exhibition travelled to London, Ontario and Fort William, Ontario and to the Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia.

Works

Many of his works describe the history of shipping on the Great Lakes.
At the National Archives of Canada, The George Cuthbertson Collection consists of:
The Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston, Ontario features several of his works:
Maritime Subjects include: