Canadian painter. From a wealthy Montreal family, he trained as a lawyer but went to Paris in late 1889 to devote himself entirely to painting. He was the first Canadian painter to win an international reputation. From 1882 to 1886 Morrice attended the University of Toronto, and from there he went on to study law at Osgoode Hall. As a student, he began to paint landscapes in the Adirondacks and at Lake Champlain, and in 1888, while articled to a law firm, he exhibited a painting with the Royal Canadian Academy. In 1889, with the encouragement of Sir William Van Horne, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway and a perceptive art collector, Morrice abandoned the practice of law for good and set sail for Europe. He spent a brief time at the Académie Julian and then studied with Henri-Joseph Harpignies (1819-1916). He soon became friends with several American artists including Maurice Prendergast and Robert Henri. Like other painters of his generation, Morrice was strongly influenced in the 1890s by the work of James McNeill Whistler and a friend of Walter Sickert. Morrice first visited Venice about 1896, and Saint-Malo about 1900. Every year or so Morrice returned to Canada and sketched in Quebec and Montreal, sometimes with the Canadian impressionists Maurice Cullen and William Brymner. In 1904 the French government bought Morrice's Quai des Grands Augustins, Paris and the Pennsylvania Museum of Art his The Beach, Paramé. The National Gallery began to purchase his paintings in 1909. During this period Morrice became a familiar figure in the international group of artists and writers who met at the Chat Blanc, a small restaurant in Paris. Among the group were Somerset Maugham and Arnold Bennett; the former's character Cranshaw in Of Human Bondage and the latter's Farll in Buried Alive are based in part on Morrice. In 1908 he met Henri Matisse, and they traveled in Morocco in 1911-1912 and 1912-1913, although they did not paint together. Characteristically, Morrice made small pencil drawings or oil sketches on wooden panels while seated in a café from which he could observe the passing show, a glass of whiskey at his elbow. He painted all his large pictures in his studio on the Quai des Grands Augustins, in broad areas of harmonious colour and with detail kept to the minimum. Morrice remained in France for much of World War I and was commissioned to paint the Canadian troops in action in Picardy in 1918. From 1919 on, his health began to decline, and he spent more time in warmer climates, visiting the West Indies in 1920-1921. His taste for drink affected his health and it is believed he did little painting after 1922 when his physical condition began to deteriorate seriously. He was stricken by a fatal attack in Tunis, January 23, 1924, where he was buried. //