The Government of Ontario Art Collection was the first publicly funded art collection in the country. Dating from 1855, it currently numbers almost 2,500 original works of art. While many of these works may be found in Toronto's Legislative Building and in ministries and government offices throughout the city, a significant number are also located in 30 other towns and cities across the province.
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Broad in scope, the collection comprises historical and contemporary paintings and works on paper, indoor and outdoor sculpture, portraits, and antique furnishings and decorative objects.
This diversity very much reflects the collection's evolution beginning in the years around the middle of the 19th century up to the present day.
The nucleus of the collection can be found in the works purchased by the Rev. Egerton Ryerson who, in 1855, was Canada West's Chief Superintendent of Education.
Ryerson's aim was to encourage the Fine Arts in Upper Canada, a goal he set about achieving by embarking on a "Grand Tour" of Europe in 1855 and 1856.
Acquired on these trips were copies of paintings by the Old Masters from many of the most historically important schools of painting, as well as almost 1,000 plaster casts of antique statuary, plaster busts of famous men and casts of architectural ornamental decoration. | 
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Bust of Rev. Egerton Ryerson, D.D., L.L. D., 1858
Chief Superintendent of Education
for Canada West and Ontario, 1844-76
Rosen, active 1850's
Government of Ontario Art Collection, 619729
Thomas Moore Photography, Toronto
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![Photo: Interior Gallery in the Toronto Normal School , [ca. 1909]](pics/3-7668s.jpg)
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One of the Interior Galleries in the Provincial
Museum
and Art Gallery in the
Toronto Normal School, [ca. 1909]
© 2002 Courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario
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Once transported to Canadian soil, these works were prominently displayed for the edification of the local population in the province's first public museum, the Educational Museum of Upper Canada.
Opened in 1857, the museum was located in the Toronto Normal School, St. James Square in Toronto. |