John Goodwin Lyman

A Life Between Continents

John Goodwin Lyman was born in Biddeford, Maine, to American parents who eventually moved to Victoria, British Columbia. His early years were marked by the movements of his family, and after attending the High School of Montreal and studying at McGill University, he found himself drawn toward the light of Europe. In 1907, a trip to Paris changed the course of his life. He began studying at the Académie Julian under Jean-Paul Laurens and later enrolled in the Académie Matisse. It was during these formative years that he met fellow Canadian artist James Wilson Morrice, forming a bond that would link his development to the broader currents of international art.

The years following his studies were often spent away from Canada. Alongside his wife, Corinne St. Pierre, whom he married in 1910, Lyman lived through long periods of travel across France, Spain, and North Africa. This time of exile allowed him to absorb the lessons of the School of Paris. He even maintained a villa in Southern France during the 1920s, where he kept up correspondence with Matisse. These decades abroad provided the technical foundation and the visual vocabulary that he would eventually bring back to Montreal.

Bringing Modernism to Montreal

Returning to Montreal in 1931, Lyman found a local art scene that was often resistant to new ideas. His early exhibitions in Quebec were met with harsh criticism from the press, particularly when he presented works influenced by Fauvism. Rather than retreating, he became an active force for change within the Canadian art community. He sought to create spaces where modern ideas could be shared and discussed without the immediate weight of traditionalist backlash.

His commitment to the growth of local art took several practical forms:

• He established the Atelier, an art school held under the auspices of McGill University.
• He helped organize the Eastern Group of Painters to provide better exhibition opportunities for artists.
• In 1939, he founded the Contemporary Arts Society, serving as its first president to promote international modernism in Canada.
• He shared his perspectives on art through a regular column in The Montrealer between 1936 and 1942.

Style and Later Years

While Lyman was deeply influenced by the intensity of Fauvism and the work of Matisse, his own hand developed a distinct character. His mature paintings often moved away from the raw energy of those early influences toward a more reserved and calm approach. He utilized muted colors and smooth paint-handling to create works that possessed an emotional distance and a certain classical clarity. His subjects frequently included portraits, nudes, and landscapes, such as his depictions of Bermuda or coastal scenes.

In his later life, Lyman transitioned into academia, accepting a professorship at McGill University in 1949 and eventually becoming the chairman of the Fine Arts Department. As the art world shifted toward abstraction and Automatism, his work remained rooted in a personal vision that emphasized the expression of feeling through form. He passed away in 1967 in Christ Church, Barbados, leaving behind a legacy of institutional building and a body of work that helped bridge the gap between European modernism and Canadian art.