Walter Allward

Born in Toronto on November 18, 1876, Walter Seymour Allward's style as an artist and architect was well established by 1921...(Portrait of a young Walter Allward in his studio. Circa 1914. Walter S. Allward Collection. Library and Archives Canada/National Gallery of Canada.)

But none of his previous endeavours completely explained the overwhelming scale and power of what he had in mind for Vimy Ridge.(South African Monument. Toronto. Copyright of D.S. Richardson.)

The First World War had disrupted traditions, and many artists who had lived through it experienced a strong sense of rupture in history.On a more personal level, Allward, who had lived through the war years, suffered its consequences and truly understood the toll taken on the nation and its citizens.(Walter S. Allward. Walter S. Allward Collection. Library and Archives Canada/National Gallery of Canada.)

The Vimy Monument reveals Walter Allward as an emotional individual burdened by sadness and a deep sense of obligation to never forget those who had died so that the living may secure a better life.(Walter Allward Portrait. Walter S. Allward Collection. Library and Archives Canada/National Gallery of Canada.)

His true genius was to draw meaning out of carnage, light from darkness, and to put into tangible form the depth of the sacrifice and the sense of loss felt by those who survived."Let it go out of your heart and into the stone." Spoken by the character of Walter S. Allward in Jane Urquhart's Canadian best seller The Stone Carvers.(Walter Allward. Walter S. Allward Collection. Library and Archives Canada/National Gallery of Canada.)

The Canadian National Vimy Monument, according to many, is Allward's greatest work.(Showing one of the reclining figures at rear of Memorial. Library and Archives Canada.)

He dedicated 14 years of his life to its completion. (Allward in Seget limestone quarry. Croatia. Library and Archives Canada.)

...when his design was chosen as Canada's tribute to its dead and lost on French soil. (Maquette of the Vimy Monument – plaster. Walter S. Allward Collection. Library and Archives Canada/National Gallery of Canada.)