Orville Fisher

Orville Fisher (November24, 1911 July13, 1999) was an Official Canadian war artist, muralist, graphic artist and painter. He was the only Allied war artist to take part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy. He came ashore with the 3rd Infantry Division of the Canadian Army at Juno Beach, and depicted the turmoil of war in his drawings and art work.

Career Born in Vancouver, B.C., Fisher attended the Vancouver School of Art (today the Emily Carr University of Art and Design), graduating in 1933, studying with F. H. Varley from whom he received training in drawing the figure, and Jock Macdonald. Afterwards, he went to the British Columbia College of Arts (1931-1934).

With fellow Vancouver artists Paul Goranson and E. J. Hughes (the trio called themselves the Western or West Coast Brotherhood, echoing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood), he painted several murals. Inspired by Diego Rivera and Thomas Hart Benton, the trio executed a series of large panels for a cabaret restaurant in Vancouver's Chinatown and murals for the First United Church, then murals at the Malaspina Hotel in Nanaimo. Fisher stayed with the 3rd Division until it reached Nijmegen in the Netherlands, then he returned to the front at Rotterdam, where he worked until the war ended.

Later life After the war, Fisher returned to Vancouver where he began a teaching career at the Vancouver School of Art which lasted 30 years; he taught painting and was head of the Graphics department as well as continuing to work as a muralist, graphic artist, and painter. Through his war work, he became friendly with Charles Comfort and later assisted him with a mural for the Toronto-Dominion Bank in Vancouver. He also painted five murals for the lobby of the B.C. Electric Building. Fisher died in July 1999 at 88 years old in Langley, B.C.