Robert Charles Aller

Saskatchewan NAC Auction House Biography and Notes

Robert Aller was born in Dauphin Manitoba. The youngest of nineteen children Aller grew up on a farm and early in life developed a love of nature. At the age of twenty, Aller studied at the Vancouver School of Art, where he won a scholarship. He travelled to Montreal, and studied for five years with Arthur Lismer at McGill University. Aller continued to accompany Lismer on his sketching trips to the West Coast after leaving the school. Aller first began working with First Nations communities in 1958. More an artistic guide than a teacher, Aller provided creative materials and encouraged his students to follow their intuition. Throughout the years, Aller received invitations to visit native settlements in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.