| Max Maynard was born in 1903 in India to missionary
parents who moved to Victoria in 1912. Here he soon distinguished
himself and as a young man was a member of an intellectual circle
that included Jack Shadbolt, Roy Daniells and Fred Brand. Maynard
was largely self-taught as an artist and his best work owes a large
debt to the Group of Seven and Emily Carr. Both Shadbolt and Maynard
used to visit and learned from the mature Carr until she threw them
out with the accusation that they were stealing her artistic ideas.
Maynard left an important legacy in BC’s art history both
through his work at the Vancouver Art Gallery, his championing of
the modernist cause and his distinctive paintings from the 30’s
and 40’s. The artist also enjoyed a long and distinguished
career as a professor of English at the University of New Hampshire
where he taught until his retirement in 1973. He returned to Victoria
in 1978 and died here in 1982.
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