Bertram Brooker Artwork
Bertram Brooker was born in Croydon England, in 1888. The family emigrated to Manitoba in 1905. He worked at a number of jobs in Manitoba, including the railroad, ran a movie theatre, and then began writing for the newspaper and entered the advertising business. He lived in Portage La Prairie and then Winnipeg. His wife, Mary Aurilla Porter was from Portage La Prairie, they met in the church choir.
They began their family in Winnipeg and then moved to Toronto in the early 20s and their third child was born there.
In Toronto, he continued writing (Syndicated Newspaper columns, advertising magazine work and an Advertising Agency creative position). He began painting in this period and joined the Arts and Letters Club, which exposed him to many of the great Canadian artists, writers and musicians of the day. He produced the first abstract art exhibition in Canada in 1927.
During the 30s, his painting and writing both progressed and he won the first Governor General’s Prize for fiction with Think of The Earth in 1936. Another successful novel, The Robber was published later. He also wrote plays, screenplays, essays and poetry. He also wrote several advertising textbooks and edited 2 versions of the Yearbook of the Arts in Canada.
While best known for his painting and drawing (both pencil and ink), his writing and advertising work are recently receiving more scholarly attention and new unpublished writing is planned for release in the next year.
Bertram Brooker died in 1955.
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