Peter Clapham Sheppard was born in Toronto on October 21, 1879. As a young man, he worked in commercial art, serving an apprenticeship in lithography at a Toronto commercial lithography company. From 1911–1914, he attended the
Central Ontario School of Art and Industrial Design, studying with
William Cruikshank,
George Agnew Reid and
J. W. Beatty. By 1912, his paintings showed the influence of
Impressionism. He received many awards during his school years, and a Diploma for Painting in 1913–1914. After he graduated, he taught at the school's summer sessions in
Hoggs Hollow. From 1917, he made a living working full-time as an artist, attracted to industrial subjects and combining them with figures - he particularly enjoyed recording the human presence, and views of the city in Montreal as well as Toronto and New York in which he was influenced - unusually for Canada - by
John Sloan. From 1925–1927, he was in Montreal, painting impressionistically city streets, cab stands and market scenes. His work gradually became
Post-Impressionist as he painted oil sketches of harbour and landscape. In 1929, he returned to Toronto. In the 1930s, he chose subjects in
the Ward area of Toronto. Sheppard showed his work at the
Royal Canadian Academy from 1915 to 1954 (he was elected an associate in 1929), the
Art Association of Montreal from 1916–1950, the
Ontario Society of Artists (1912–1946) (he became a member in 1918), the
Canadian National Exhibition, the British Empire Exhibition in 1925, and other major exhibitions, such as the
1939 New York World's Fair. Sheppard's work is represented in public collections such as the
Art Gallery of Ontario, and the
National Gallery of Canada. He died in
Newmarket, Ontario on April 24, 1965. ==After his death==