Ken Danby, 67; Renowned Realist Painter Known for Iconic Image of a Hockey Goalie

Ken Danby, a Canadian realist painter best known for his 1972 painting "At the Crease," depicting a masked hockey goaltender, has died. He was 67.

Greg McKee, manager of the Danby Studio in Guelph, Ontario, said Mr. Danby was believed to have suffered a heart attack while canoeing Sunday at Algonquin Provincial Park in northern Ontario. The official cause of death will not be known until an autopsy is completed.

Mr. Danby, born March 6, 1940, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, had been recognized as one of the world's foremost realist painters.

"Ken Danby gave back to his country in many ways," Michael Burtch, director and curator of the Art Gallery of Algoma, said in a statement. "His loss is tragic but he has left a great legacy to this country."

Mr. Danby's painting of a masked ice hockey goalie hunched in the crease is considered by many to be a Canadian national symbol.

The prolific artist was said to have known from a young age that he wanted to paint, and he enrolled in the Ontario College of Art in 1958. Mr. Danby's first one-man show in 1964 sold out, an occurrence that would become commonplace as his work proved popular with private, corporate and museum collectors.

When asked to identify his favorite work, Mr. Danby frequently replied: "My next one."

In the 1980s, Mr. Danby prepared a series of watercolors of Canadian athletes at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

In 2001, he was vested in both the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada, one of Canada's highest honors. He also served on the governing board of the Canada Council and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Canada.

Mr. Danby is survived by his wife and three sons.