Andre Lapine

Andreas Christian Gottfried (André) Lapine, (1866-1952) was a Latvian-born Canadian painter renowned for his accurate depictions of horses, as well as landscapes and portraits. Born in Skujene in the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire, he was the son of Natalia Julia Krebs and Johan Lapine, a general contractor. He began his art training at a young age under M. Rose of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, who recognized his exceptional talent and invited him to tour Europe's foremost galleries in 1882 to further his studies. After six months, Lapine separated from his instructor and established a studio with Josef Weiss in Paris. He subsequently traveled through France, Belgium, and arrived in Amsterdam in 1885, where he studied at the Royal Academy of Amsterdam night school under Professor August Allebé and became a member of the St Lucas Art Society.

During his twenty-year residence in the Netherlands, Lapine married Collumbiena Geertruida Britt from Norg in August 1897 in Amsterdam. In 1905, the couple emigrated to Canada, initially staking land in Manitoba before moving to Toronto in 1907. At age forty, Lapine began working with Fred Brigden at the Toronto Engraving Company, which later became Brigden's Ltd. His rigorous European academic training established him as North America's premier illustrator of horses, and he developed a systematic formula for drawing horses in correct proportion. His work frequently appeared on covers of the Toronto Star Weekly and in the publication's color sections.

Lapine became a member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1909, resigned in 1910, and was re-elected in 1922, remaining until 1938. He was also a member of the Graphic Arts Club, the Toronto Arts and Letters Club, and a founding member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. In 1919, he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. His work was acquired by the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario. In 1934, Lapine was severely injured in a car accident in Toronto, prompting the Toronto art community to organize a charitable sale of paintings to cover his medical expenses under the leadership of Sir Edmund Wyly Grier. He eventually recovered and continued painting. The Lapines moved to Minden, Ontario in the 1940s, where André continued his artistic practice until his death in 1952. Art critic Pearl McCarthy of the Globe and Mail, who nicknamed him the "gentle cavalier," noted his passing as the loss of "one of their most picturesque links with past ways" in Toronto art circles.