Collection search - Sidney Carter fonds [graphic material]

Record information – Brief
1
Sidney Carter fonds [graphic material]

Hierarchical level:

Fonds

Date:

1902-1950.

Reference:

R10963-0-4-E

Type of material:

Photographs

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

207501

Context of this record:

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Sidney Carter fonds
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Record information – Details
Fonds includes:

479 lower level description(s)
View lower level description(s)

Date(s):

1902-1950.

Place of creation:

Canada

Extent:

428 photographs : 426 b&w prints, 2 b&w negatives.

Language of material:

English

Scope and content:

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Photographs taken by Sidney Carter during his career as a photographer and art dealer, including much of his work as a Pictorialist in both Toronto and Montreal in the early 20th century. Included are still-lifes, costume studies and landscape scenes, as well as pictorial portraits of Lady Drummond (Grace Julia Parker),Thornton Wilder, Rudyard Kipling, André Bieler, Lord Northcliffe, James W. Morrice, Goldwin Smith, Sir Edmund Walker, Frederick Philip Grove, William Gerhardi, Hugh Walpole, Vachell Lindsay, Edmund Davison, Sergei Prokofiev, Percy Grainger, Bertrand Russell, John Singer Sargent, Rockwell Kent, Austin Cooper, Stanley Gardner, John Ogilvy, Bliss Carman, and many others. There are also several portraits of women, particularly Carter's wife, Mary Duncan Carter, as well as of Maud Carter, Gladys Carter, Nora Carter Wilks, and Mary Elizabeth Carter. There are also portraits of friends and colleagues, including Robert McTavish, and Campbell Tinning, and a wedding photograph of Mrs. L. W. Inwood. Some self-portraits are also part of the fonds.

The fonds also includes pictorialist portraits, genre and landscape scenes by pictorialist colleagues of Sidney Carter, including A.S. Goss, Charles Job, Minna Keene, George Nakash, H. Mortimer Lamb, F.E. Lloyd, E. Burkemann, a landscape attributed to J.P. Hodgins; and a print by Egon Ratibor. Finally there is a catalogue of an exhibition of pictorial photographs by Walter Mackenzie, Fenwick Cutten and Carter, held at the Art Association of Montreal, 1913.

Provenance:

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Carter, Sidney Robert, 1880-1956
Additional name(s):

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Nakash, George, 1892-1976

Goss, Arthur S., 1881-1940

Keene, Minna

Mackenzie, Walter

Mortimer-Lamb, Harold, 1872-1970

Job, Charles

Lloyd, F.E

Burkemann, E

Brigman, A. W

Falk Studios (New York, N.Y.)

Arthurs and Chapman (New York, N.Y.)

Tinning, George Campbell, 1910-1996

Carter, Duncan

Art Association of Montreal

Lady Drummond, 1861-1942
Biography/Administrative history:

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Carter, Sidney Robert, 1880-1956 : Sidney Robert Carter was born 18 February 1880 in Toronto. In 1897, he was listed in the Toronto Business Directory as a "clerk". But he had discovered his talent for photography early; in 1901, he exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society in London and in Philadelphia. By 1902, Carter was exhibiting with the Toronto Camera Club and in the Philadelphia Salon; he was represented the next year in the "first Salon" of the Toronto Camera Club, as well as in Chicago.

His activity and talent in the direction of pictorial photography were so well received by 1904 that he was elected an Associate of the Photo-Secession in New York. From 1904 to 1906, Carter exhibited with the Canadian Society of Applied Art, with the Toronto Camera Club (where he also served on the Executive Committee), and in Philadelphia, London, Vienna, and with the Photo-Secession in New York.

Imbued with dedicated pictorialist ambitions, he was an originating force behind the establishment of "The Studio Club" in Toronto, which was intended as a Canadian version of the Linked Ring in England. During at least part of this time, he earned his living at the Ontario Bank in Toronto. In November of 1906, however, the bank failed and he found himself unemployed. He immediately moved to Montreal to begin a partnership in professional portraiture with Harold Mortimer-Lamb.

The venture was unlucky from the beginning, whether because their style was too advanced for their market or because Mortimer-Lamb had other concerns. Their partnership stayed alive if not vital for about a year. Yet within that time Carter had engineered the successful opening of Canada's first pictorialist exhibition. This had taken place between 23 November and 7 December 1907, in the galleries of the Art Association of Montreal. Carter's activities in 1907 also included writing the Canadian chapter for Photograms of the Year and organizing the Canadian section of the Royal Photographic Society show in London. Despite these herculean efforts, and Carter's coup of a Rudyard Kipling portrait taken during the poet's visit to Montreal in 1907, the city's buying public preferred other photographers.

In 1908, Carter was employed in an office of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and early in January 1909, he began working for W. Scott & Sons, fine art dealers with offices in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. Hopes of a professional photography career were put away until about 1917. Possibly visits to Toronto in 1909 (one extended by a bout of smallpox) caused him to be listed as an "artist" in that city in the Toronto Business Directory. However, Montreal was still his home. By 1917, he was an "artist" at "344 Dorchester, W." and in 1918 an "art and antique dealer" at "340 Dorchester W.." This period marked his re-entry into professional portrait photography in Montreal. Pictorialism had acquired some vogue among professionals, and over the next twelve years or more Carter was able to produce a long series of society portraits and images of prominent personalities such as Sergei Prokofieff, Bliss carman, Percy Grainger, and John Singer Sargent. By this time some of the disturbing haunting quality of Carter's style had been replaced by a firmer outline and an interest in graphic effect. He kept up his amateur photography for some time, submitting prints to the Toronto Camera Club's 1930 all-Canadian exhibition.

As an art dealer, however, Carter achieved a reputation for having fine objects, particularly from the Orient. He managed to maintain his business through some monetary reverses and through the Depression, despite an unbusinesslike attitude which was apt to lead him to give works away or to sell low to those who appreciated art. He liquidated the stock of his studio/gallery just two years before his death in Montreal on 27 March 1956.

Works by him are located in the National Archives of Canada; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Stieglitz Collection; and in private collections.

Finding aid:

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Graphic material (Photo) (Electronic) All of the photographs are also described at the item-level. (90: Open)
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000002327.pdf

Additional information:

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Custodial history:

Almost all of the material was acquired directly from Carter's son, who inherited it. However, some of the material came from other family members, from friends, former clients and from dealers.

Availability of other formats note:

A copy of "A Catalogue of an exhibition of pictorial photographs by Walter Mackenzie, Fenwick Cutten and Sidney Carter, held in the Galleries of the Art Association of Montreal, from 15th October to 4th November, 1913." can be found in accession file 1979-087.

Related material:

Other photographs by Sidney Carter are in the William R. Watson fonds (NPC 1984-334), the Hazen Sise fonds (NPC 1975-397) and the Harry Orr McCurry fonds (NPC 1976-087)

Container note(s):

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2001022248 : Photos removed from Albums 1&2, and the ¿Catalogue of an exhibition of pictorial photographs by Walter Mackenzie, Fenwick Cutten and Carter, held at the Art Association of Montreal, 1913 ¿

Source:

Private

Related control no.:

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1979-056 NPC
1979-057 NPC
1979-087 NPC
1979-111 NPC
1979-128 NPC
1981-074 NPC
1985-182 NPC
2004-00228-X

Other accession no.:

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1979-056 NPC
1979-057 NPC
1979-087 NPC
1979-111 NPC
1979-128 NPC
1985-182 NPC
1981-074 NPC
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

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Graphic (photo)

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [R10963] 1

[Consultation 90 Open]

Box [CARTER, SIDNEY 1979-057] 4088

[Consultation 90 Open]

Box [CARTER, SIDNEY 1981-074]

[Consultation 90 Open]

50221--50227;

[Consultation 90 Open]

50230;

[Consultation 90 Open]

55137;

[Consultation 90 Open]

55038.1;

[Consultation 90 Open]

INT 022;

[Consultation 90 Open]

Box [CARTER, SIDNEY 1979-111]

[Consultation 90 Open]

50229;

[Consultation 90 Open]

55037;

[Consultation 90 Open]

Box [CARTER, SIDNEY 1979-128] 50237

[Consultation 90 Open]

Box [CARTER, SIDNEY 1979-087]

[Consultation 90 Open]

50237--50238;

[Consultation 90 Open]

55022;

[Consultation 90 Open]

2001022248;

[Consultation 90 Open]

Box [CARTER, SIDNEY 1985-182] 5165

[Consultation 90 Open]

Box [CARTER, SYDNEY 1981-074] RV5 024

[Consultation 90 Open]

Terms of use:

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Copyright expired on all photographs taken prior to January 1, 1949. Copyright: Estate of Sidney Carter for all photos taken after Jan. 1, 1949

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Date modified:: 2024-04-09