The Homer Watson House & Gallery at 1754 Old Mill Road is the former home of Homer Watson, Canada's first noted landscape artist. The gallery, dating to 1906, is one of the oldest operating galleries in Ontario, and the early Victorian house was where Fred Varley of the Group of Seven and Carl Schaefer taught at the Doon School of Fine Arts during the 1950s and '60s.

In 1955, the house was declared a national historic site and in 1980 the home and three-acre property were designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.

Little remembered today, Homer Ransford Watson (1855-1936) was nationally esteemed in his time as the "Canadian Constable". Among those who owned his works were Oscar Wilde, railway magnate Lord Strathcona and Queen Victoria, who received a painting as a gift from Canada's Governor General and liked it so much that she bought two more.

Born and raised here in rural Doon, Ontario, where the 1883 canvas below, "After the Rain", was also painted, Watson moved to Toronto at age 19 to pursue a career in the arts and studied further in New York. He enjoyed success from the beginning for his realism and detailed craftsmanship -- and the lack of threat in his pastoral scenes. There is no Turneresque gale approaching.

Nor did he appreciate the Group of Seven's flag-waving charge to stamp their art as "Canadian". He felt they were trying too hard. They swept right past him.

Further reading: The facility's website, Wikipedia entry on Watson and a Mount Allison University article on his work.