RiverBrink Art Museum
116 Queenston Street
Queenston, ON LOS 1L0
905 262-4510
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RiverBrink Art Museum is unique among Canadian art museums. We are located in retirement home of our founder, Samuel E. Weir, Q.C. (1898-1981), a man who was best described as eccentric. His plan, which preoccupied him for over thirty years, was to build a home to preserve and display the objects he had lovingly collected during his lifetime, and to ensure that it would eventually become a public art museum.
Mr. Weir was born and grew up in London, Ontario. After graduating from Osgoode Hall and being called to the Bar of Ontario in 1920, he returned to London as a barrister and solicitor. In the early 1940s he bought property along the Niagara River in the village of Queenston. Located at the foot of the Niagara Escarpment below the Brock Monument and adjacent to the Niagara Parkway, his land is situated halfway between Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake. A history buff, Mr. Weir was particularly sensitive to the fact that his land is close to the site of the Battle of Queenston Heights, a decisive battle fought during the War of 1812. During the 1950s and 1960s he built a residence on the property and retired there in the early 1970s.
A man with encyclopedic interests and an inquiring mind, Mr. Weir collected a wide variety of objects, from paintings, prints and drawings and sculpture to books, historical documents and decorative arts over a period of sixty years. The strength of the collection is the fine art, of which there are approximately 1,000 pieces dating from the seventeenth century to the 1970s. The art is primarily Canadian and includes works by most of the important Canadian artists working up to the 1950s. Approximately 30% of our art holdings originated in Britain, France and the United States.
Canadian artists represented in the collection include Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, Cornelius Krieghoff, Paul Kane, Marc-Aurele de Foy Suzor-Cote and Emily Carr. International artists include Augustus John, Sir Jacob Epstein, Mary Cassatt and Rockwell Kent. An area of special collecting interest for Mr. Weir was views of the Niagara region. His group of paintings by second-generation French Impressionists is substantial. He sometimes concentrated on the work of specific artists; our Augustus Johns are the largest group of works by this artist in a Canadian public art gallery.
Exhibitions are drawn from the collection and change annually. At any one time approximately 200 artworks are on display. Our library of approximately 4,500 volumes concentrates on fine art and history and is available to the public for research. We are open from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm daily from mid-May to mid-October and at other times by appointment (phone: 905-262-4510).
