Charles Fraser Comfort (1900–1994) was a distinguished Canadian artist, who served as Director of the National Gallery of Canada from 1960 to 1965 [1]. His personal library of more than 800 items reflects a multitude of interests and associations, forged during a lifetime devoted to the arts in Canada.

Comfort was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and began a lifetime of book collecting while attending primary school in England. Already showing promise as an artist at the age of eight, he was awarded a book as first prize for painting and brushwork at Little Hadham School, Hertfordshire [2].

In 1912 Comfort came to Canada, where he worked in the Winnipeg office of F.H. Brigden [3] and studied at the Winnipeg School of Art. He continued his education at the Art Students’ League in New York, under Robert Henri [4]. Comfort returned to Canada in 1923 and married Louise Irene Chase the following year [5]. In 1925 they settled in Toronto, where Comfort established a commercial studio and taught at the Ontario College of Art (1935–38) and the University of Toronto (1938–60). His teaching appointment was interrupted by the Second World War, when he served in Europe as an official war artist [6].

Following the war, Comfort returned to his teaching position in Toronto and continued working as an artist. During this period, he studied seventeenth-century Dutch master techniques in the Netherlands, contributed articles to Canadian journals, and published his memoir, Artist at War (Ryerson Press, 1956) r [7]. In 1960, he was appointed Director of the National Gallery of Canada [8]. At the conclusion of a five-year term, he resumed full-time painting. Works from this period include large public murals, portrait commissions, landscapes and experiments in abstraction.

During a long and distinguished career, Comfort enjoyed the friendship of Canadian artists, historians, diplomats, writers and critics [9–13]. He held membership in art societies: Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (charter member, 1926), Canadian Society of Graphic Art, Ontario Society of Artists, Canadian Group of Painters (founding member, 1933), and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (president, 1957–60). Among many honours, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1972. The occasion of his honorary induction into the Arts and Letters Club (1978) was commemorated with an inscribed gift volume from his long-time friend and fellow painter, Carl Schaefer (1903–1995) [14].

The Comfort library consists mainly of modern imprints, with notable exceptions. An 1865 edition of Hermann Grimm’s biography of Michelangelo (1475–1564) was presented to Comfort by A.Y. Jackson [15]. An eighteenth-century English translation of the treatise by French artist Charles Du Fresnoy (1611–1688), known for his interpretation of academic classicism, has been expertly restored in a modern binding by Anthony Gardner (1887–1973) [16]. A prized rare book, The Russian Ballet in Western Europe (1921), contains illustrations of costumes and set designs by Natalia Gontcharova and leading artists who contributed to the Diaghilev ballet. Comfort’s copy, in original binding, is signed “Chas. F. Comfort / 1925” [17].

The content of the Comfort library reflects the artist’s lifelong interests. Methods and materials in painting [18–19], history and theory of art [20–21], and the work of individual artists [22–23] are strongly represented, complemented by Canadian illustrated books [24–27], as well as works of fiction, travel and history. The Second World War is a prominent subject, including histories, memoirs, and illustrated volumes on war art [28–29].

The library is rich in association copies, with personal inscriptions to both Charles and Louise Comfort, occasionally accompanied by newspaper clippings, photographs, greeting cards and personal letters [30–31]. The books and accompanying materials in Charles Comfort’s library document his formation as an artist, his steadfast commitment to artistic practice and teaching, and his significant contribution to the mosaic of Canadian arts and letters [32].