Robert H. Savery

1902-1980
Artist, landscape architect, public servant

Public art, especially art in abstract forms, is sometimes controversial. In retrospect, it is surprising that the innocuous fountain in the precinct behind the Parliament Buildings in Victoria, British Columbia, provoked the ire of local artists who described it as "dreadful" and "shocking." The fountain was a gift from the Province of British Columbia to the City of Victoria for the city's centennial in 1962. It was designed by an artistically-talented government employee, Robert H. Savery.

A landscape architect, Savery also designed a monumental fountain in Vancouver, the formal gardens at Government House in Victoria, and the Heritage Precinct for the Provincial Museum and Archives in Victoria. Despite these legacy works, he is not well-known or remembered today.

Robert Savery was born in Halstead, Essex, in south-east England on 1 February 1902. He was a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (née Maynard) Savery. His father was a university lecturer and his mother was an artist. His maternal grandfather was a gentleman of independent means in Taunton, Somerset. He was baptized Robert Hubert Savery on 4 February 1902 at St. Andrew's (Anglican) Church in Halstead.

He was educated at St. Paul's School, London. He was artistically inclined and studied with some of the leading illustrators of the day, including Percy V. Bradshaw, Alfred Gilbert, and Harry Roundtree. He also studied at the Museum of Natural History in London where he specialized in animal and botanical drawing. As well, he learned architectural design and landscaping from an associate of the renowned firm of Thomas H. Mawson & Sons in London.

Savery immigrated to Canada in 1924 and became a landscape architect. Initially, he worked for H. B. & L. A. Dunington-Grubb, a celebrated firm of landscape architects in Toronto. (His boss, Howard Grubb, has been called "the father of landscape architecture in Canada.") Savery was involved with several major projects with Dunington-Grubb, including Gage Park and the Entrance Park and Sunken Garden at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He was subsequently engaged by E. D. Smith & Company in nearby Winona, Ontario.

He was working as a landscape architect in Winona when he married Margaret Aitcheson Henderson, a registered nurse, in Toronto. They were married in June 1930. Their first child, Robert James Savery, was born in Hamilton in December 1931.

A few years later, the Savery family moved to New Westminster, B.C., where Margaret's parents lived. The Savery home was at 204 Blue Mountain Street, New Westminster. The Savery's second child, Maynard St. John Savery, was born in New Westminster in December 1934.

In the mid-1930s, Robert H. Savery is listed in directories of Greater Vancouver as a landscape architect and artist.

Savery was a charter member of the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG), which exhibited his animal and bird illustrations in 1936. He had solo exhibitions at the VAG in 1937 and 1939 and exhibited his paintings and drawings with other B. C. artists at the VAG in later years. The entries in exhibition catalogues suggest the range of his work. These included watercolours, "Spires-Holy Rosary" and "Welders, B.C. Shipbuilding," and an ink drawing, "Commercial Fishers." With Lawren Harris and Jack Shadbolt, he was a founding member of the Federation of Canadian Artists (1941).

He qualified as a school teacher by taking short-term courses offered by the provincial Department of Education and in 1937 was hired to teach manual training and art at the junior high school in Duncan on Vancouver Island. He was there for about five years. During that period, he organized displays of artwork from students in regional schools and gave talks to local service clubs about applied arts and architecture. Moreover, he designed a new place of worship for the congregation of the Duncan United Church. The handsome church building on Ingram Street, Duncan, was dedicated in December 1941 and is still in use.

Savery also taught in Kelowna. He was engaged as the art teacher at Kelowna Junior High for the 1943/1944 school year and was active in the Okanagan Valley arts community. In May 1944, he contributed to an exhibition organized by the Federation of Canadian Artists in aid of wartime charities. A reviewer noted: "The work of R. H. Savery, of the Kelowna school staff, was perhaps outstanding among the many fine examples displayed at the show."

In September 1944 Savery joined the provincial civil service as an assistant in the Architect's Branch of the Department of Public Works. He was employed in that department, and advanced within its ranks, for over twenty years. All the while, he continued to practice his art and occasionally exhibit his work. He also published short stories, which were illustrated with his drawings, in magazines and newspapers.

Until 1955, the Department of Public Works was responsible for constructing roads and bridges in the province. This was a period of substantial economic growth and in 1955 the Social Credit government of W.A.C. Bennett created a separate Department of Highways. The Public Works department was able to focus on designing, constructing, and maintaining buildings for hospitals, schools, and government offices.

In 1957, the Department of Public Works established a Landscape Service within its Architect's Branch and Savery was appointed chief Landscape Designer. His major projects included landscaping the grounds of Government House (which had been destroyed by fire in April 1957) and the design of an extensive rose garden on the Vice Regal property. He was also involved with various beautification projects to mark British Columbia's centennial of 1958. One of these enduring projects was a floral emblem in parterre bedding on the south side of Victoria's Inner Harbour with a greeting, "Welcome to Victoria."

Savery was interested in history (he was an expert on heraldry) and enjoyed working on commemorative projects. The Deputy Minister of Public Works, A. E. [Arnold Evan] Webb, was a history buff, too. The provincial government wanted to mark the centenary of the City of Victoria's incorporation in 1862 and Webb conceived a decorative fountain with an historical motif. The fountain was erected in the precinct behind the Parliament Buildings and unveiled in August 1962.

Webb's concept for the centennial fountain alluded to the advent of colonial government in four parts of the province: Vancouver Island (1849), Queen Charlotte Islands (1852), British Columbia (1858) and Stickeen Territories (1862). Each region was represented on the perimeter of the fountain by a bird or animal that was associated with Indigenous peoples — hence an eagle, raven, bear and wolf for the four regions respectively. At the centre of the fountain, sea otters and seagulls evoke the maritime history of the province. Savery created sculptures of the birds and animals, which were cast in bronze by a foundry in Birmingham, England.

The Victoria Centennial Fountain, designed by Savery with input from Webb, was activated by Premier W. A. C. Bennett on 2 August 1962 at 9:00 p.m. The fountain was illuminated with coloured lights and about 2,000 people were on hand for the event.

The design was ridiculed by avant garde artists in Victoria. The artists who derided the design were members of the Point Group, a 'circle' of a dozen artists who exhibited together. The group was the precursor of the collective known as the Limners (1971). Herbert Siebner, a modernist painter and sculptor, said that Savery's design looked "like the topping for a birthday cake." Margaret Petersen, an abstract painter and mosaicist, said the fountain design was "shocking." "It is the most decadent form of representational art, the sort of thing you find in the 10-cent store ashtrays," she said. The painter Richard Ciccimarra sniffed: "It's absolutely dreadful!" Anthony (Tony) Emery, who was then an art teacher at Victoria College, mused snidely: "We've got enough real seagulls; why spend money creating bronze ones?" The sculptor Elza Mayhew asked archly: "Who is Robert Savery and what are his qualifications for designing public monuments?" The aggrieved artists felt the provincial government should have held an open competition for the fountain instead of designing the work in-house with a civil servant. Siebner even contacted the director of the National Gallery in Ottawa who, he hoped, would intercede on behalf of the Victoria arts collective.

The Minister of Public Works, W.N. Chant, acknowledged the criticism, which was satirized in a cartoon by Sid Barron in the Victoria Daily Times. But Chant wasn't prepared to change course on the project. He and some of his colleagues had become disenchanted with avant garde artists after a disastrous exercise in commissioning public art in conjunction with the 1958 British Columbia Centennial. On that occasion, the provincial government had held an open competition and invited designs for a sculpture that would symbolize the 'Spirit of Youth.' The winning design would have been installed prominently and permanently on the front lawn of the Parliament Buildings in Victoria. However, there was an outcry when maquettes (models) of the finalists' designs were displayed to the public. One of the contenders, an abstract statue by Siebner, was described derisively in the Vancouver Sun as "a nightmare blob." The government subsequently abandoned the Spirit of Youth sculpture project, after paying consolation fees to Siebner and the other finalists. Happily for the provincial government, there was no public furore over the Victoria centennial fountain in 1962.

Originally, there were plaques with historical notes beside the four perimeter sculptures; and a large plaque was originally affixed to the east side of the fountain plaza, providing context and more information about the colonies and territories that formed the province of British Columbia.

Webb and Savery were also responsible for a stone cairn and bronze plaque that was placed near the fountain in 1963. The plaque, with figures in relief and a schematic diagram, identifies the fourteen statues of historical figures seen in the niches of the adjacent Legislative Library wing of the Parliament Buildings. The cairn also identifies the six medallions of literary and philosophical figures that adorn the library wing. An inscription on the plaque reads simply: “Designed and erected by the staff of the Department of Public Works.”

A few years later, in 1966, Webb enlisted Savery for a commemorative project in Vancouver. This time, the provincial government constructed a large fountain in front of the Vancouver Court House. The fountain was a gift to the city to commemorate two historic events: the 80th anniversary of the incorporation of the City of Vancouver (April 1886), and the 100th anniversary of the 'united colony' of British Columbia, which occurred in November 1866 when the British government amalgamated the colonies of Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia. Unveiled in December 1966, the fountain designed by Savery featured a marble sculpture, nearly 5 metres tall, by Toronto-based artist Alexander von Svoboda. Begrudgingly, the arts community in Vancouver accepted von Svoboda's creation, but predictably local artists were critical of the fountain and the fact that it was created without an open competition. The chairman of the Vancouver Community Arts Council remarked that "[government] employees aren't qualified to design works of art or sculpture. They are incompetent in these fields of art."

Undaunted, Webb and Savery created yet another public fountain in Victoria in 1967. Located near the Parliament Buildings and close to Victoria's Inner Harbour, at the corner of Belleville Street and Menzies Street, it commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada in July 1867. A stone wall in the plaza behind the fountain is adorned with the heraldic crests of Canada's provinces. This feature added bold colours to the structure that Savery designed for the site. Arnold Webb may have been responsible for the time capsule that is a prominent part of the Confederation fountain and plaza in Victoria.

By this time, Webb was fully engaged with the design and construction of the new Provincial Museum and Archives. Plans for that mammoth project were first mooted in 1959 and Webb was chairman of the Planning Committee from the beginning. The museum exhibition hall, curatorial office tower, carillon bell tower and archives building were designed by architects in the Department of Public Works. Savery designed the courtyards in this remarkable complex and the sunken garden and reflecting pool in front of the entrance to the Provincial Archives on the southeast corner of the site. The garden was planted with grasses and shrubs from every climate zone in the province. The landscaping was in place when the Exhibition Hall and Heritage Court were officially opened on 17 August 1968. Savery, who had retired from the public service, attended the event as a special guest.

Savery's wife, Margaret, died in November 1964. Some years later, Savery married Doris Lavina Smith. He sold the house at 3901 Ascot Drive in Saanich, which had been his family home and art studio since 1948, and moved to a suite on Park Boulevard beside Beacon Hill Park.

Savery died in Victoria on 21 January 1980. He was nearly seventy-eight years old. He was survived by his sons, Robert James [d. 1990] and Maynard St. John [d. 2018], and wife, Doris [d. 2012].

Robert Savery's obituary mentioned that he was a charter member of the American Institute of Landscape Architects. His notable achievements included the Government House rose garden; the Centennial, Confederation, and Court House fountains; and the landscaped grounds of government buildings around the province. He was also a noted West Coast wildlife artist, author and illustrator.

The fountain in front of the former Vancouver Court House, now the Vancouver Art Gallery, was decommissioned in 2014 and dismantled three years later. The marble sculpture was removed to a storage facility in Coquitlam, BC. The now broken sculpture is a liablility for the BC government's Asset Management Branch and may be discarded. It's status is described by Eve Lazarus in her blog, Every Place Has a Story.

But the commemorative fountains in Victoria are still in place and the Heritage Precinct around the Royal BC Museum and Archives is still intact. A plaque that acknowledges the contributions of Robert Savery to the aesthetics of these places would not be amiss.

Notes and references

Researched and written by Patrick A. Dunae