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Thomas Mower Martin was born in London, England in 1838. As a young man, he attended military school in Enfield, England. When he discovered the appeal of drawing and drafting, Thomas went to work for a building contractor. This job allowed him to assist with hanging pictures at the Royal Academy, and sparked Martin's interest in painting, thus prompting him to take up studies at the South Kensington Art Schools in London. In 1862 Thomas Mower Martin and his wife moved to Canada, to settle on some farmland near the township of Draper in the Muskoka region of Ontario. He often traveled in search of inspiration for his work, and went west with Marmaduke Matthews, Lucius O'Brien, and Forshaw Day. Martin, along with F.M. Bell-Smith, Robert Harris, and William Cruikshank, was one of the first artists to capture the magnificence of the Rockies to share with the Eastern provinces.
Thomas Mower Martin was a founding member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1872, and in 1880 became a founding member of the Royal Canadian Academy. He was the first director of the Ontario Government Art School.
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