Toronto native Robert Norgate was an artist and teacher at the now-closed Fisher Park High School in Ottawa. He submitted his work to the art competitions at the 1948 Summer Olympics, but the competition that he entered (statues, reliefs, or medals and plaques) is unknown and he did not win a medal. Three years after participating in London, he was one of the Canadian participants in an international competition for a memorial to the “Unknown Political Prisoner”. In 1952 he opened a studio in what would later become the Yorkville artists’ neighborhood in Toronto, where he exhibited his pictures and sculptures in marble, limestone, bronze and other metals. There he was part of the local art scene. His works began to gain prominence in the Ottawa area during the early 1950s and were displayed in local and international galleries and events until his death in 1956, while he was only in his late 30s. Swimmer Disrobing was a plaster model for a bronze statue.
Canada