Korea: Brushes with War

When the Korean War erupted, Canada didn’t send an official artist to the conflict. Luckily, it had already had one there, in the personage of Royal Canadian Regiment sniper Edward “Ted” Zuber.

Born in Montreal, Zuber studied art at École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, and constantly carried a sketchbook with him on the frontlines in Korea.

Involved in some of the fiercest fighting of the war, he returned to Canada determined to transform his sketches into vivid paintings depicting both raging battles and scenes of everyday life on the front lines.

His work came to the attention of the Canadian War Museum, which eventually purchased thirteen paintings that now hang proudly in the museum’s collection. Roughly forty years later, Zuber was chosen in 1991 from a field of thirty candidates to become the official Canadian war artist of the Gulf War. He completed hundreds of sketches, and ten major paintings which were purchased by the Department of National Defence.

Zuber continues to paint today, and is the only Canadian to hold both the Korean War medal and the Gulf War medal.