ABSTRACT
The European Art and Canadiana
Collections of Robert Wilson Reford (1867-1951)
Sarah E. Ivory
1995
Robert Wilson Reford, a Montrealer engaged in the
shipping business, amassed a large collection of Old Master and European pictures which
included a significant number of British paintings of the eighteenth century, and showed a
preference for portraits. Highlights included portraits by Bronzino, Veronese,
Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Hoppner, a large collection of Boningtons, and the Madonna of
the Yamwinder attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. Collected between 1909 and 1948, the
paintings were purchased primarily from a few well-known dealers in London, New York and
Paris who were to add considerably to the quality of Reford's collection. His taste,
therefore, is representative of the international taste for Old Masters and
eighteenth-century portraiture which dominated the art market from the late nineteenth
century to the 1920s. Reford also collected a large number of Indian medals and wade
silver, watercolours, maps, prints, and other documents which constituted his collection
of Canadiana. Collected from the mid-1880s to the 1930s, the collection reflects Reford's
interest in material history concerning Canada's past. Several other collectors were
equally interested in validating Canada's history and their concerns were related to the
growth of Canadian nationalism during the later nineteenth and early twentieth century.
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