Toronto Art Students' League : The Toronto Art Students' League was founded in 1886 by a group of artists which included W.D. Blatchly, A.H. Howard, J.D. Kelly and C.M. Manly. They were driven by the need for a professional academy which would afford artists an alternative to more rigid and formal associations and academies. During its lifetime of close to twenty years, the group succeeded in pushing the development of the graphic arts in Canada at a time when public interest in the arts was meagre.
Originally conceived as a sketch club which adopted as its motto the slogan Nulla dies sine linea (no day without its line), members organized what they considered essential life drawing classes. Professional models were, at the time, most difficult to procure. By sharing a common model, the group was able to pay above the going rate in order to reserve the most experienced models available. In addition to sessions dedicated to the figure, monthly subjects for compositions were posted and the resulting work was later submitted for examination by fellow members. These exercises were found to most instructive as each student would explore a similar theme through remarkably different interpretations. The League continued to expand its memberships and its activities. With increasingly larger numbers on its roster, including no restriction on female membership, the League was forced to move three times to more expansive studio quarters. With the onset of more clement weather, the classroom was frequently abandoned in favour of outdoor sketching sessions. These were organized on weekends as well, usually by the enthusiastic C.M. Manly, at selected spots within the operating radius of the Toronto street car system. Those who were able took part in longer sketching trips, frequently in the Niagara region.
One of the most impressive activities of the group was the production of annual calendars, published from 1892 to 1904. Seen as a means by which to experiment both technically and aesthetically, the calendars combined popular subject matter with sympathetic Canadian verse. Writers included Bliss Carman, E. Pauline Johnson and Duncan Campbell Scott. The calendars were often organized about a theme such as rural and village life, facets of Canadian cities, and sports and leisure activities. Befitting their collective approach to the making of art, elected officers used any profits made from the publications to defray League expenses.
In 1904, the League folded. By this year, its membership included such notable artists as C.W. Jefferys, J.E.H. MacDonald, Fred Brigden, Robert Holmes and Robert Crouch. For close to two decades, the Toronto Art Students' League succeeded in fostering a comraderie among like-minded artists who chose to dedicate their talents to an art rooted in a Canadian, not old world, reality. See "The Toronto Art Students' League 1886-1904" by William Colgate, (Ryerson Press, Toronto, 1954) for a history of the group and its membership.
