Memorable Manitobans: Victor Albert Long (1866-1938)

Victor Albert Long Click to enlarge

Artist.

Born at Fort Erie, Ontario on 24 May 1866, son of Richard and Anne Long, he was educated the St. Catharines College Institute and Trinity College Dublin. He studied painting at Munich, Germany and travelled all over the world, engaged in painting. He returned to Canada in 1887 and opened a Winnipeg studio at 383 Main Street where he specialized in portraits of anyone, regardless of status. He also approached the city and province offering to paint large portraits of public figures such as Mayors, Premiers, and Speakers at a deeply discounted price in exchange for them being prominently displayed. Long soon found that he was able to live on his income as an artist, one of the first in the city to do so.

Hundreds of Long’s portraits hang in legislatures, city halls, universities, and other institutions across the West. His most accessible works in Winnipeg include portraits of a number of the city’s early Mayors in the public gallery of the city council chambers as well as Andrew Carnegie’s portrait and landscapes of Fort Garry and Fort Douglas at the Millennium Library.

On 17 January 1902, he married Alexandra Victoria Anderson Hughes (1871-1955) at Brandon and they had two children: Winifred Long (1894-?) and John Alexander Long (1904-?). In 1910, the family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia but each summer Long would take a train back to Winnipeg, collecting new commissions at stops along the route. He would ship the completed works from his Vancouver studio.

He died at Vancouver, British Columbia on 18 December 1938. His correspondence relating to Manitoba political portraits (1915-1927) is in the Archives of Manitoba.

His portraits in Manitoba included:

Subject	Year	Location
Prince Albert	c1900	Archives of Manitoba
James Bryson Baird (1859-1939)	1917	Legislative Building
Curtis James Bird (1838-1876)	1915	Legislative Building
Esther Huston (1865-1938, wife of Edward Brown)	?	YWCA Building
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)	1905	Winnipeg Millennium Library
Henry Joseph Hynes Clarke (1833-1889)	1907	Legislative Building
Francis Evans “Frank” Cornish (1831-1878)	?	?
Thomas Mayne Daly (1852-1911)	1902	?
Robert Atkinson Davis (1841-1903)	1907	Legislative Building
Joseph Dubuc (1840-1914)	1915	Legislative Building
King Edward VII	1887-1900	Legislative Building
Marc Amable Girard (1822-1892)	1905	Legislative Building
David Glass (1829-1906)	1916	Legislative Building
Thomas Greenway (1838-1908)	1908	Legislative Building
David Howard Harrison (1843-1905)	1908	Legislative Building
William Hespeler (1830-1921)	1916	Legislative Building
Colin Inkster (1843-1934)	1916	Legislative Building
Samuel Jacob Jackson (1848-1942)	1916	Legislative Building
James Johnson (1855-1929)	1915	Legislative Building
Albert Clements Killam (1849-1908)	1901	Winnipeg Law Courts Building
John Mark King (1829-1899)	1907	John M. King School
John Leslie (1852-1915)	1887	Legislative Building
Phoebe Leslie (1860-1945)	1887	Legislative Building
Hugh John Macdonald (1850-1929)	1909	Legislative Building
Queen Mary	c1900	Legislative Building
James McKay (1828-1879)	1916	Legislative Building
Gilbert McMicken (1813-1891)	1915	Legislative Building
Alexander Morris (1826-1889)	1909	Winnipeg Law Courts Building
Alexander “Sandy” Murray (1839-1913)	1916	Legislative Building
John Norquay (1841-1889)	1905	Legislative Building
Tobias Crawford Norris (1861-1936)	1922	Legislative Building
John Harrison O’Donnell (1838-1912)	1915	Legislative Building
John Palmerston Robertson (1841-1919)	1919	Legislative Library of Manitoba
Rodmond Palen Roblin (1853-1937)	1909	Legislative Building
Joseph Royal (1837-1902)	1916	Legislative Building
Queen Victoria	1887-1900	Legislative Building
John Wright Sifton (1833-1912)	1915	Legislative Building
Lewis Wallbridge (1816-1887)	?	Winnipeg Law Courts Building
Richard Deans Waugh (1868-1938)	1908	Elizabeth Dafoe Library, University of Manitoba
William James Winram (1838-1891)	1915	Legislative Building
Finlay McNaughton Young (1852-1916)	1916	Legislative Building

Sources:

1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.

Birth and marriage registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.

Who’s Who in Western Canada: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of Western Canada, Volume 1, edited by C. W. Parker, Vancouver: Canadian Press Association, 1911.

Death registrations, British Columbia Vital Statistics.

“Vancouver artist found dead in room,” Winnipeg Tribune, 19 December 1938, page 3.

“Artist's painting tells of sympathy,” Winnipeg Tribune, 28 March 1970.

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

A portrait of artist Victor Long, West End Dumplings blog.

Artists in Canada: Long, Victor Arthur, Portrait Gallery of Canada.

We thank Rachelle Ross and Lisa Desilets for providing information used here.

This page was prepared by Christian Cassidy and Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 19 December 2021

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