John Herbert Caddy

John Herbert Caddy

John Herbert Caddy, painter and teacher (b at Québec C 28 June 1801; d at Hamilton, Ont 19 March 1887). In 1816 he began military training at Royal Military College, Woolwich, England, and was commissioned 2nd lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in 1825. Topographical drawing and painting in watercolour were important and influential aspects of this training. His military career consisted of 2 tours of duty with the RA in the West Indies (1828-38), and in British Honduras (1838-41), where he recorded in drawings and a lively diary an expedition to the Mayan ruins at Palenque.

Promoted to captain in 1840, he was posted to London, Canada West, in 1842 and retired on half pay in 1844. He moved to Hamilton about 1851 and worked first as a land surveyor and engineer but gradually concentrated on his career as artist and teacher. Numerous watercolours of Canadian landscapes give evidence of travel from Fort William to Québec, with concentration in the Hamilton-Niagara Falls region. His powers of observation, love of nature and a touch of romanticism, disciplined by training as an engineer, combined to imbue his work with both charm and topographical accuracy.