(Gore) (b Saint John, NB, Jan 12, 1912; d Saint John, Jan 21, 1968). Canadian painter. He studied from 1930 to 1932 at the Art Students’ League, New York. While there he was particularly influenced by the personality and teaching of Harry Wickey (1892–1968), who encouraged him to abandon his original intention of becoming a commercial artist and to concentrate instead on fine art, although Brittain did not begin to work in oil or tempera–oil mixed media until 1938. Mixed media painting was much studied at the Art Students’ League and elsewhere in North America during the 1930s, in the hope that an emphasis on sound craftsmanship would form the basis of a reintegration of art into society as a whole. This concern was also reflected in the city-oriented subjects of the American Scene painters and others. Brittain’s work prior to World War II relied heavily on such subjects, as in his Longshoremen (1940; Ottawa, N.G.). Whether this was due more to an interest in active social reform than to a passive recognition of the results of economic stagnation in Saint John is debatable....