'', 1922 Watson was born in 1887 in
Freshfield, England. He immigrated to Canada in 1905 and got his first job, with John Ogilvy, a former dry goods merchant who ran an art business as a hobby. He recalled later that they sold contemporary French, English, and Dutch paintings, sent from England by Harry Wallis, an art dealer in London. Watson believed that the art shop of John Ogilvy was the first gallery in Montreal devoted exclusively to art. He helped these artists, even placing shows at galleries other than his own. In 1914, when he became President of the Montreal Arts Club, he organized one-person shows in the Club of Morrice and Jackson. Other Canadian artists such as
Helen McNicoll, found their work praised in the newspaper review he wrote in the
Montreal Gazette. The first Canadian painting he sold, in 1906 when he was with Ogilvy, was by Frederick S. Coburn, and he maintained a friendship with Coburn and sold his work, as well as that of
Albert H. Robinson,
A. Y. Jackson,
Emily Carr and
Robert Pilot. In 1934, he organized a
retrospective of Cullen's work. In 1925, after the death of Brymner, he organized a show of
All the Remaining Paintings and Water Colors by Brymner, as well as giving a show to
Alfred Laliberté. In 1926, he gave one-person exhibitions to Cullen's stepson,
Robert Pilot, his first, as well as
A. H. Robinson and
Suzor-Coté. In the period from 1927 to 1929, he gave Suzor-Côté a major exhibition as well as giving three one-person shows to Pilot. In the 1930s, besides Cullen, he showed the work of Pilot in nine one-person shows as well as showing the work of
Alex Colville and
B.C. Binning. When he closed the Watson Art Gallery in 1958 at seventy-one years of age, Jackson wrote a letter in which he acknowledged Watson's role, writing "You have known, and been a good friend to nearly all the artists, and must have happy memories of them." == Personal life, death and legacy ==