Frederick William Lock (active 1841–1863) is known primarily as a Canadian painter of portraits and landscapes. His medium was predominately pastel chalk crayon on paper. Many of Lock's pastel portraits were executed on "dark paper" so that the subject's faces often came out relatively dark-skinned, an unusual technique. A few of his landscapes were lithographed, notably of Niagara Falls and of The Thousand Islands, while others were in pencil, ink and in watercolor. Citations of Lock and his artwork are found in Early Printers and Engravers in Canada by J. Russel Harper, and in The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction by Anthony R. Westbridge and Diana L. Bodnar.Harper, J. Russell, Early Painters and Engravers in Canada, University of Toronto Press, 1970, ; page 199Westbridge, Anthony R. & Bodnar, Diana L. The Collector’s Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction, Vol. 2, page 126, Westbridge Publications, Ltd., 2000.
F. W. Lock's works can be found in the British Museum, The National Gallery, and National Portrait Gallery, London, England; the McCord Museum, National Gallery of Canada, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Montreal, QC; the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario; the Brockville Museum, Brockville, Ontario; the Lac-Brome Museum, Knowlton, Quebec, Canada; and the Harvard/Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Early life as an artist in England, 1841–1846
Lock was born in St. Marylebone parish, London, England, in 1825. As a youth he was enrolled at the National Gallery, London, in 1841 as a copyist (#1072) by William Seguier, the first Keeper of the National Gallery.Foss, Brian. (Canadian Artists Copyists at National Gallery, London), page 113.Accessed 2016-02-29 One of Lock's copyist paintings while at the National Gallery (c. 1841), is his rendering of a 17th Century Bearded Gentleman with a Ruff, a copy of the Portrait of Cornelis van der Geest, by Anthony Van Dyck.Image, 17th Century Bearded Gentleman with a Ruff, courtesy of its owner, was obtained through David Gardner, Art 'n' Antiques, Trefin, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire England in 2014. Lock worked for a time in England as a lithographer. An 1841 mezzotint proof print of Lock's drawing of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert returning from their wedding ceremony, engraved by Samuel William Reynolds Jr., is in the British Museum collection.(Accessed 2015-12-18). That drawing by Lock was later reformatted and published in 1844 by John William Laird, bearing the title The Bridal Morn (Queen Victoria; Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) is in The National Portrait Gallery collection, London.(Accessed 2016-02-17). Another of Lock's drawings, a portrait entitled The Fair Domino, engraved and printed by T. W. Huffman in 1844, is also in the British Museum collection.(Accessed 2015-12-18).
In 1845, Lock worked in Derbyshire and Staffordshire as an illustrator of antiquities under Thomas Bateman, a prominent Derbyshire archaeologist and borrow digger. Lock's work assignment with Bateman was likely arranged through Lock's uncle, the Rev. Stephen Isaacson, M. A. of Derbyshire. The two older men were good friends, and both were active members of the British Archaeological Association. Lock also became a member of the archaeological association that year. Bateman, and Rev. Isaacson, exhibited Lock's "extensive series of drawings of weapons, ornaments, etc..." before the association's Central Committee, many of which were reportedly "executed on the spot;" and Lock himself presented at least one paper to the Archaeological Association's Central Committee. A number of watercolor illustrations and pen and ink sketches by Lock were later included in Bateman's first book, Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire, published in 1848, after Lock had emigrated to Canada. That book by Bateman includes a pen and ink self-portrait by Lock, shown in a circular seal and labeled "A Distinguished Barrow Digger, 1845".The pen and ink self portrait of Lock in a circular seal of a "Distinguished Borrow Opener, AD 1845," appears in the book Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire, 1848, opposite page 1. (Lock's self-portrait, appearing inside the seal, is not a portrait of Thomas Bateman as some have supposed.) Another signed drawing by Lock appears on page 106. Accessed 2015-11-14. Enable Java script.Lock presented at least one paper, "Account of the Hermitage at Carcliffe, Derbyshire, near Robin Hood's Stride," to the Archaeological Association's Central Committee. The Journal of the British Archaeological Association…vol.1, 1845/46, Published by Henry G. Bohn. pages 237,360 & 364. Accessed 2015-12-18 Lock may have assisted Bateman in compiling images for that book before emigrating to British North America.
British Province of Canada, 1846 or 1847
Lock left England for British North America in 1846 or 1847, and settled in Montreal, then the capital of the Province of Canada, initially residing there with his uncle, Robert Philip "Dolly" Isaacson, proprietor of Dolly's Chop House. Isaacson was then a widower whose wife had died in 1822. Isaacson had preceded Lock to Canada in 1832.Step down through the following external web page link to the third paragraph under the subheading "William Parr Isaacson" to find that Robert Philip (R. P.) Isaacson "came (to Canada) in 1832;" and also that he had a son, John Helder Isaacson, b. 1820. Accessed 2016-02-17 Isaacson likely helped Lock establish a clientele while Lock was employed in his restaurant.View Lock's portrait of "Dolly" Isaacson, and other paintings by Lock posted with captions by Doug Grant, Brockville Historian. (Pintrest's free site may require registration to view those images.) Accessed 2015-12-17 Caption reads: "Fred Lock may have resided with his uncle in Montreal from 1849 to 1853."
Lock's earliest known works in Montreal were copies of paintings of French Canadian Parliament ministers James Harvey Price and Denis-Benjamin Viger, both done in 1847. Lock's earliest known commission was the portrait (1847 or 1848) of Major John Richardson, "the first Canadian born novelist and writer to achieve international recognition." The portrait was published in Richardson's book, Richardson's War of 1812; a print of the portrait is held by the Library and Archives, Canada.(Accessed 2016-02-17).
In 1848, Lock painted an interior view of his room in Montreal, one of only two still-life paintings by Lock yet identified, showing a table cluttered with books, personal items and his "tools of the trade," that's been titled The Artist's Possessions (17.4 x 24.5 inches).Image, The Artist's Possessions, courtesy of Carolyn & Barton Ellison, Pacifica, California. During the next seven years, Lock painted subjects in and around Montreal, and westward as he traveled along the developing waterways through much of populated Ontario, most notably Bytown, later renamed Ottawa by Queen Victoria in 1854 during the time that Lock was there. The report by Harper that Lock "visited... in Manchester Vermont 1849" may be based on a possibly misleading statement in a letter dated Oct. 28, 1945 by Orrin E. Dunlap to the New York Historical Society re: "Newly Discovered American Portrait Painters," stating: "F. F. Sherman reported finding in Manchester (VT) a pastel portrait signed, F.W. Lock, dated 1849…".Accessed 2016-01-04
Punch in Canada published a political cartoon by Lock on February 3, 1849 titled Young Canada delighted with Responsible Government depicting an infant ("Young Canada") being "delighted" by its Nanny (Governor General, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin) pulling strings of a puppet representing "Responsible Government."Accessed 2016-01-16 The contentious Rebellion Losses Bill, to provide reparation payments to (mostly) French-speaking Lower Canadians whose property had been damaged during the rebellions of 1837, was then being promoted in the Legislature as an imperative of "responsible government." During those deliberations, English speaking Loyalist rioters set fire to the Parliament Buildings in Montreal the night of April 25, 1849 while parliament was in session. The following morning, five men were arrested for instigating the riot and fire, four of whom had spoken publicly in opposition to that bill. That event was "memorialized" in a montage of timely sketches made by Lock, Portraits of Five Gentlemen who were Unjustly Imprisoned, that was promptly published and widely circulated as a Punch in Canada Extra.Accessed 2015-01-01The names of the five gentlemen portrayed, engraved by John Henry Walker, after Lock, are: J. M. Ferres, Editor; H. E. Montgomerie, Merchant; W. G. Mack, Barrister; Augustus Heward, Broker; Alfred Perry, Tradesman.
In 1853, Lock began working from Brockville, Ontario, located on the River St. Lawrence, at the foot of the Thousand Islands. There he painted two river views of the town, and numerous portraits of prominent citizens and leaders in the community. That winter of 1855-56 Lock traveled westward to Niagara where he painted at least three views of the falls (two of which were lithographed in color(accessed 2016-02-17), and (accessed 2016-02-17)), and a graphite sketch of the falls.
In 1856 Lock and Emily Chaffey (b. 1829) were married at St. George's Anglican Church in Montreal;Marriage Record, Bibliotheque et Archives nationales,Accessed 2015-12-20 and afterward made their home in Brockville where Emily's widowed mother and perhaps six of Emily's siblings were living.Emily Chaffey's family genealogy (generation No.2).Accessed 2016-01-16 Lock made another trip to sketch Niagara Falls in winter where he produced one additional graphite sketch of the falls, dated 1857, that has survived. In 1858, Lock worked from his artist's studio on Market Street in Brockville; and it is likely there that Lock painted his self-portrait (featured prominently above), which is in the McCord Museum, Montreal.Lock's art studio address, Canadian Directory for 1857-58. Accessed 2015-12-10
Emily died at Brockville on 8 February 1859, cause unknown. Harper reported that Lock "returned to England shortly after her death in 1859;" and Westbridge reported that "in 1859 [Lock] was at Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, England." However, Lock was still living in or near Brockville in the summer of 1860 when he painted two views of The Thousand Islands, one in daylight(accessed 2016-02-17) and one in moonlight.(accessed 2016-02-17) Both views were lithographed, prints of which were sold likely to help fund Lock's planned return trip, via Montreal, to his native England.
In the 1860s, the increased availability and economy of photography began threatening Lock's livelihood as a portrait painter. As an example, Lock's eldest brother in law and prominent Brockville builder, Benjamin Chaffey Jr. (1806-1867), chose to be photographed rather than sit for a portrait painter.Photograph of Benjamin Chaffey, Jr. (1806-1867):Accessed 2016-01-05 (Chaffey photo on the Brockville History Album web page, down 65% from the top.)
By 1862, Lock had returned to Montreal where he painted a second portrait of his aging uncle, Robert Philip "Dolly" Isaacson. "Dolly" Isaacson, a widower, died early the following year on 18 April 1863 at age 73, and was buried at Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal Region, Quebec, Canada. ("Dolly" Isaacson was born on 2 December 1789 in Cowlinge, Suffolk, England.)
Return to his native England
Lock returned to England from Montreal in 1862, or possibly in 1863 after his uncle "Dolly" Isaacson died and Isaacson's estate was settled. Lock may have been named a partial beneficiary of his uncle "Dolly" Isaacson's estate, though Isaacson may have had descendants (a son, John Helder Isaacson, b. 1820) and designated beneficiaries still living at that time. Harper reported that Lock "remarried in England," and "lived at Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk." (Vital statistics and marriage details needed here.)