O-439

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painting (portrait)

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The Honourable Thomas Simpson Sproule

Portrait of Speaker Thomas Simpson Sproule

Thomas Simpson Sproule had been a member of Parliament for 33 years when he became Speaker in 1911, despite his membership in the Orange order and its resistance to Catholic and French rights, and despite Opposition Leader Wilfrid Laurier having derided him as “the very quintessence of Toryism.” Yet, as Speaker he began to learn French, and he ruled with a firm hand. He was born in King Township, near Toronto, in 1843, and represented the riding of Grey East. Health forced him to resign as Speaker in 1915 and he was appointed senator. He died in 1917. John Colin Forbes painted his portrait around 1913.

John Colin Forbes

The Forbes family arches over Canada’s early official portraiture like no other. Between John Colin Forbes and son Kenneth Forbes, they painted seven Prime Ministers and 25 speakers of the Senate or House of Commons. They also painted several British monarchs, most notably John Colin Forbes’s portraits of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, which were destroyed in the fire at Parliament in 1916. Forbes was born in Toronto in 1846, and studied in London and Paris. He was friends with Wilfrid Laurier and painted more than one portrait of the MP and Prime Minister, including one that Laurier donated to the nascent National Gallery of Canada.