Ernest Friedrich Lindner

Saskatchewan NAC Auction House Biography and Notes

Ernest Lindner was born in 1897 in Vienna, Austria and was a lieutenant in the Joint Austrian Air-force and a bank clerk before coming to Canada with his family in 1926. After settling in Saskatoon, he worked as a freelance commercial artist and illustrator, and became active in the local arts community. He started a weekly arts discussion group called 'Saturday Nights', was president of the Saskatoon Art Association, participated in Emma Lake Artists' Workshops, and was one of the first members of the Saskatchewan Arts Board. He also took night classes in art at Saskatoon's Technical Collegiate and studied under Augustus Kenderdine. Lindner later became the head of the Art Department at the Technical College (1936). Lindner is best known for his watercolour paintings that depict the lush trees and mosses near his summer home at Emma Lake. But Lindner also painted figures and interiors and in oil and tempera paint, and produced wood carvings and copper relief works. Lindner has received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Saskatchewan (1972), was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts (1977) and the Order of Canada (1979), and was awarded the Saskatchewan Arts Board's Lifetime Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1988. His paintings were exhibited across Canada and in Europe. Lindner's work is represented in collections including the Academy of Applied Art (Vienna), Grand Central Galleries (New York City), the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Ernest Lindner died in Saskatoon in 1988. In 2007, the Saskatchewan government designated his studio at Emma Lake as a provincial heritage property. At the ceremony, Regional Economic and Co-operative Development Minister Lon Borgerson recognized Linder's impact on the province: "Ernest Lindner made an indelible impression on the development of Saskatchewan arts and culture."