Brockville Museum Exhibition

Works by 19^th century artist, Frederick William Lock are now on display at the Brockville Museum.  Born in England, Lock lived in Brockville for a brief period in the 1850s, during this time, he applied his unique technique of using pastels on dark paper to create portraits of some of Brockville’s most prominent citizens.

Works by Lock are held in some of this country’s most notable collections, including the Royal Ontario Museum and the McCord Stewart Museum, but all the works displayed in this exhibit are from the Brockville Museum’s own collection of art.

“The museum has in its care over 200 pieces of framed art, but has rarely had the opportunity – or space – to display any of these treasures” explains Museum Curator/Director, Natalie Wood. “Community feedback suggested that there was interest in seeing more art, so last year we renovated one of our exhibit spaces to serve this purpose”.

While all the works on display were created in Brockville and depict prominent Brockville residents from the 1850s, most travelled a great distance to find a home in the museum’s collection.

“The museum has been very fortunate over the years to acquire an assortment of pieces by Lock from a number of different donors looking to help return the works to their place of origin” says Wood. Two of the portraits were found in Wisconsin in 1982, while three of the works made their way home from British Columbia in 2019. In 2021, the museum was also gifted letters written by Lock, which are also included in the new exhibit.

The exhibit opened January 25 and will run until December. Admission to the Brockville Museum is by donation.

Reltated programming:

• On Family Day, Monday, February 20th, 2023, the Leeds and Grenville Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society will be on hand with resources connected to the families represented by portraits currently on display in this exhibit.
• On Monday, March 6th, 2023, the Brockville Museum will co-present with the Leeds and Grenville Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society at their monthly meeting sharing history on Lock and on the families of the people in his portraits. Everyone is welcome to join online via Zoom, but registration is required.  You can register at this link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZElf-GtrTgrEtYK3Kbvovoho0CGRDO_e0QA. 
• Tuesdays in June 2023 the Museum will run a video series on Facebook (@BrockvilleMus) haring insight into Lock's works. Videos will be available on the museum's YouTube Channel starting in July (@TheBrockvilleMuseum)