Memorable Manitobans: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald (1890-1956)

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald Click to enlarge

Painter.

Born at Winnipeg on 17 March 1890, son of Lionel Henry Fitzgerald (1864-1943) and Belle Dorothy Hicks (1863-1940), he spent his entire life there except for brief periods of art training in the United States and Montreal. He began exhibiting in 1911 and left a real estate job to work as an artist in 1912. In the period during and immediately after the First World War, he was commissioned to prepare honour rolls for a number of organizations and businesses.

He taught at the Winnipeg School of Art (1924-1949) and was its Principal (1929-1947). At an early age he moved to pointillism (“little strokes or spots of pigment,” he called it), particularly for landscapes, and he was much influenced by Cézanne and Seurat. In 1932 he was invited to join the Group of Seven. During the 1930s he was very impressed by the Bauhaus movement, which influenced his educational philosophy at the School of Art. After his retirement in 1949 he shifted entirely to abstractionism. The University of Manitoba awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1952. He was often linked with Bertram Brooker.

On 22 November 1912, he married Felicia Wright (1890-1962) and they had two children, Lionel Edward FitzGerald (1916-?) and Patricia LeMoine FitzGerald (1919-1976, wife of Hugh Witney Morrison).

He died at the Winnipeg General Hospital, following a heart attack, on 5 August 1956. A collection of his papers are held by the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.

In 2004, he was inducted posthumously into the Winnipeg Citizens Hall of Fame. He is commemorated by the Fitzgerald Building at the Fort Garry campus of the University of Manitoba and Fitzgerald Crescent in Winnipeg. His Winnipeg home at 30 Deer Lodge Place is commemorated by the Memorable Manitobans: The Homes program.

Among his artistic works were the following honour rolls, the present whereabouts of many being unknown:

Date	Description	Commissioned by	Notes	Price
9 September 1915	St. Matthews Church	Richardson Brothers	Honor Roll	2.15
5 January 1916	Grain Growers Grain Company	Grain Growers Grain Company	Roll of Honor	30.00
17 March 1916	Bannatyne School	Mr. Bannatyne	Honor Roll with frame	18.00
22 April 1916	Bank of Montreal	Richardson Brothers	1 Roll of Honor	2.00
9 May 1916	La Verendrye School	Captain Clipperton	Honor Roll	20.00
27 May 1916	Pilot Mound	Dr. H. M. Speechly	Honor Roll	35.00
2 June 1916	Young Methodist Church	Russell Lang & Company	Honour Roll	30.00
10 June 1916	Sidney Public School	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll of Honor	15.75
13 June 1916	Scott Memorial	Richardson Brothers	Lettering Honour Roll	2.00
26 June 1916	Norway House	Russell Lang & Company	1 Honor Roll	15.00
17 July 1916	Harper [illegible]	Russell Lang & Company	1 Honor Roll	3.00
17 July 1916	Willowview	Russell Lang & Company	1 Honor Roll	1.75
19 July 1916	Dominion Bank	?	1 Roll of Honor	17.50
20 July 1916	St. David's Society	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll of Honor	16.50
17 August 1916	Royal Crown Bank	?	1 Honor Roll	20.00
1 September 1916	Holy Trinity Anglican Killarney	Russell Lang & Company	1 Honor Roll	1.00
7 September 1916	Edra [illegible]	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll of Honor	7.00
15 September 1916	Mulvey Memorial	Russell Lang & Company	1 Honor Roll	6.00
14 October 1916	Central School	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll of Honor	18.00
20 October 1916	Emerson [illegible]	Russell Lang & Company	1 Honor Roll	1.75
28 October 1916	Emmanuel Church	Russell Lang & Company	1 Honor Roll	5.00
17 November 1916	Russell	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll of Honor	4.00
17 November 1916	Young Men [illegible]	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll of Honor	4.00
25 November 1916	Holy Trinity	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll of Honor	8.50
7 December 1916	St. Matthews Boissevain	Richardson Brothers	1 Roll of Honor	16.00
12 December 1916	Greenwood Church	Richardson Brothers	1 Roll	7.00
2 January 1917	Shoal Lake	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	1.00
3 January 2017	Belmont	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll of Honor	4.00
27 January 1917	Wesley College	?	1 Roll of Honour	40.00
30 January 1917	IODE Fort Garry	Richardson Brothers	Roll of Honour	12.00
15 February 1917	St. Georges Wakefield	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll of Honor	4.50
3 March 1917	Lounay [?]	Richardson Brothers	1 Roll of Honor	3.30
10 March 1917	[St.?] Charles Golf Club	Richardson Brothers		12.00
21 March 1917	M. Doctors	Richardson Brothers	1 Roll of Honor	12.00
23 March 1917	Miami Council No. 118 Rt. of ?	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	3.00
23 March 1917	The Pas Lodge	Russell Lang & Company		3.00
27 March 1917	Fifeshire Association	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	10.00
31 March 1917	Moving [?] Picture	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	6.00
3 April 1917	Silverwood Union Sunday School	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	12.00
7 April 1917	Pierson Man.	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	3.00
11 April 1917	Lyleton [illegible]	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	1.75
11 April 1917	Portage la Prairie	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	2.50
18 April 1917	Russell [illegible]	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	5.50
25 April 1917	Springfield	Russell Lang & Company	Roll 38 names	2.00
30 April 1917	Sutton P.L.P. [Portage la Prairie?]	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	2.50
4 May 1917	Holmfield	Russell Lang & Company	Roll names	2.25
10 May 1917	Progress Lodge 1057 Basswood	Richardson Brothers	1 Roll	6.50
18 May 1917	Sanford	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	20.00
31 May 1917	St. Barnabas Church	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	5.50
5 June 1917	Great West Electric Co.	Richardson Brothers	1 Roll	2.40
22 June 1917	Sweatman etc.	Richardson Brothers	1 Roll of Honor	40.00
23 June 1917	Tyndale [Tyndall?]	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll of Honor	3.00
23 June 1917	Elkwood Dist.	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll of Honor	6.50
5 July 1917	Franklin Gordon M. Ch.	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	5.00
6 July 1917	Christ Church	Russell Lang & Company	New list roll	5.00
14 July 1917	Osler, Hammond & Nanton	?	Roll including frame etc.	58.00
31 July 1917	Fort Rouge Methodist Church	T. Eaton Company	Roll	4.00
17 October 1917	High Bluff	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	4.00
17 October 1917	Kenton	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	3.75
10 November 1917	Sidney Man.	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	4.00
22 November 1917	Dauphin Collegiate	Richardson Brothers	1 Roll	14.00
3 December 1917	Scotia Presbyterian Church	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	6.50
6 December 1917	Christ Church	?	New list Honor Roll	6.00
19 December 1917	Ochre River	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	35.00
27 December 1917	Wesley Church	Russell Lang & Company	Roll	25.00
16 January 1918	IODE Red River	Richardson Brothers	Honor Roll	20.00
25 January 1918	Wood Vallance	Richardson Brothers	1 Roll of Honor	32.00
11 March 1918	St. Boniface Nurses	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	8.50
31 May 1918	Gladstone School	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	11.00
7 June 1918	Grace Church Sunday School	?	1 Roll	5.00
19 September 1918	Deloraine Methodist Church	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	8.00
19 November 1918	Solsgirth	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	3.00
8 March 1919	Tabernacle Church	Richardson Brothers	1 Roll	20.00
12 April 1919	Wesley	Richardson Brothers	Roll	18.00
14 April 1919	Goodlands	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	12.00
20 May 1919	Crystal City	Russell Lang & Company	1 Roll	13.50
20 October 1919	Starbuck	Richardson Brothers	1 Honor Roll	8.00
26 January 1920	Neveton [?]	Richardson Brothers	1 Roll of Honor	5.60

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald Plaque (Bruce Park, Winnipeg)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Chemistry and Physics Building / Earth Sciences Building / Fitzgerald Building (55 Chancellors Circle, Winnipeg)

First World War Honour Rolls by L. L. FitzGerald by Michael Parke-Taylor
Prairie History, Number 6, Fall 2021

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald: The Development of an Artist by Winnipeg Art Gallery (1978).

Progress Passing through the Spirit: The Modernist Vision of Bertram Brooker and Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald by Carole Francis Luff (1980)

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald: Life & Work by Michael Parke-Taylor, The Canadian Art Library, Art Canada Institute, 2019.

Into the Light: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald by Sarah Milroy, Ian A. C. Dejardin, and Michael Parke-Taylor, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2019.

Sources:

1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.

Birth, marriage, and death registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

Obituary [Lionel Henry Fitzgerald], Winnipeg Free Press, 13 December 1943, page 4.

“Famed city artist, L. L. Fitzgerald dies,” Winnipeg Free Press, 6 August 1956, page 1.

“Painter’s widow dies in Toronto,” Winnipeg Tribune, 8 October 1962, page 2.

Death registration [Patricia LeMoine Morrison], British Columbia Vital Statistics.

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

We thank Michael Parke-Taylor for providing information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 23 February 2023

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