b. 1891 - d. 1941

Sir Frederick Grant Banting, KBE, MC, FRS, FRSC, co-discoverer of insulin, Nobel laureate, medical scientist, painter. Banting is best known as one of the discoverers of insulin. Following the discovery of insulin, he became Canada’s first professor of medical research at the University of Toronto. Banting was also an accomplished amateur painter with links to A.Y. Jackson and the Group of Seven.

As a member of Toronto’s Arts and Letters Club, Banting came to know most members of Canada’s Group of Seven school of landscape artists. He adopted their techniques, their genteel bohemian approach to life (often accompanied by male bonding and heavy drinking) and their intense sense of Canadian nationalism. Banting and A.Y. Jackson of the Group went on several sketching trips together, and Jackson’s influence was so strong that it is difficult to tell some of their pieces apart. Banting often talked about his desire to retire and spend his time painting.

Excerpt courtesy of the Canadian Encyclopedia

Featured