2020 is the centenary of the founding of the Beaver Hall Group.
Let's celebrate their contribution to Canadian Modernism!
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The Beaver Hall Group: Canadian Modernist Painters
Who Gets To Be Remembered
Alisa Siegel: CBC: The Sunday Edition Michael Enright
Prudence Heward's The Immigrants
Jacques Des Rochers
Responding to the Beaver Hall Group
Art Gallery of Hamilton
By Woman's Hand
National Film Board of Canada
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BROCKVILLE TOURISM SELLING BEAVER HALL GROUP BOOKS FOR BROCKVILLE MUSEUM
Can’t wait for the Brockville Museum’s “Painting Picnic with Prudence Heward" exhibit to open? Good news! Brockville and 1000 Islands Tourism has partnered with the Friends of the Brockville Museum to make two books about the Beaver Hall Group available for purchase locally: “The Beaver Hall Group and Its Legacy” and “The Women of Beaver Hall”. Both image rich, hardcover books feature works by Prudence Heward and are available through Brockville and 1000 Islands Tourism. Proceeds from the sale of the books support the Friends of the Brockville Museum, a registered non-profit volunteer organization that supports museum programming and exhibition initiatives.
"Both books are written by Evelyn Walters, who was a tremendous asset in helping the Brockville Museum assemble their exhibit, including making the donation of a work by Fernbank neighbour to the Hewards, Ruth Eliot, who exhibited alongside Heward, the Beaver Hall Group, and the Group of Seven."
"Both books are written by Evelyn Walters, who was a tremendous asset in helping the Brockville Museum assemble their exhibit, including making the donation of a work by Fernbank neighbour to the Hewards, Ruth Eliot, who exhibited alongside Heward, the Beaver Hall Group, and the Group of Seven."
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VIRTUAL EXHIBITION ON NOW
“Painting Picnic with Prudence Heward” has been delayed. However, the Brockville Museum is presenting a scaled-down virtual version now and the complete exhibition once the museum is reopened. Painting Picnic with Prudence Heward
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BECOME A DOCENT!
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Something new and different. Volunteer as a docent for the upcoming “Painting Picnic with Prudence Heward" at the Brockville Museum. (Training sessions in March.) Just 2.5 hour shifts once/week. Special 3-5 pm shifts available for mature secondary students seeking hours.
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"PAINTING PRUDENCE HEWARD"
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Painting Prudence Heward: Bold, Modern and Canadian
June 23-25, 2020. St Lawrence College, Brockville. Inspired by Prudence Heward and her Beaver Hall colleagues, this three-day workshop on modern realist painting will help you to create images of strength and clarity with bold shape and strong colour regardless of subject matter. Through quick painted studies, larger painting, talks and slides, Heward and the new modern Canadian vision will be explored. Participants will visit the Brockville Museum exhibition on Prudence Heward. |
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BROCKVILLE MUSEUM GALA: "PAINTING PICNIC WITH PRUDENCE HEWARD"
BROCKVILLE MUSEUM GALA: "PAINTING PICNIC WITH PRUDENCE HEWARD"
March 27, 2020, 7pm. Opening gala of the rare opportunity to see paintings of the Brockville area by Prudence Heward, AY Jackson, and Ruth and Charles Eliot brought together for the first time from museums, galleries, and private collections. Early Bird tickets (purchased before Friday, February 14th) are $70 each while supplies last. Tickets available exclusively at https://www.bactickets.ca/TheatreManager/1/online
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"CHRIST IN CALGARY"
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"CHRIST IN CALGARY"
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Where is it? “Christ in Calgary”, the unsigned 2 m. x 4 m. painting caused a stir in 1912. Only later were the painters –– Austin Cooper and Adam Sherriff Scott –– identified. It shows Christ standing on a busy corner with a prostitute in the crowd.
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"HEADLINES"
"HEADLINES"
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“Headlines” at the Dorval Museum of Local History and Heritage pays tribute to 40 Canadian women who have shattered glass ceilings. Look for the art of Anne Savage, a member of the esteemed Beaver Hall Group. January 23 to May 10, 2020. Dorval
Anne Savage, "The Red House, Dorval", c. 1928, at the MNBAQ. |
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HEY CANADA POST!
HEY CANADA POST!
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It’s the Beaver Hall Group’s hundredth birthday too! Where is their centenary stamp? canadapost.ca/cpc/en/our-com… |
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"PAINTING PICNIC WITH PRUDENCE HEWARD"
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"Painting Picnic with Prudence Heward" is set to open on March 31, 2020 at the Brockville Museum.
It will celebrate the local work created by Heward and her friends, including members of the Beaver Hall Group and Group of Seven painter, A.Y. Jackson. She spent her summers at the family's cottage at Fernbank, immediately west of Brockville where she hosted "painting picnics" that resulted in many largely unknown paintings of Brockville and its environs. Agreements are in place with the National Gallery of Canada, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the Art Gallery of Windsor and a host of private collectors who will lend works to this extraordinary exhibition. The success of the project requires significant financial support. You can help put the Brockville community and its museum on the national stage by donating to this very special exhibition at canadahelps.org. |
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CANADA GARDENS HONOURS WOMEN OF BEAVER HALL
Thank you to Quintain Developers in the U.K. for honouring our artists with the Canada Gardens project and the naming of its seven buildings –– among them Ethel Seath, Nora Collyer and A.Y. Jackson, participants in the 1924-25 Wembley exhibitions.
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CENTENNIAL STAMP?
Uh-oh Canada Post! It looks as if the Beaver Hall Group will be overlooked once again. Like the Group of Seven they were founded in 1920, but, unlike them, they accepted women members. Where is their centennial stamp Canada Post?
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PRUDENCE HEWARD at AUCTION
CENTENNIAL STAMP?
Uh-oh Canada Post! It looks as if the Beaver Hall Group will be overlooked once again. Like the Group of Seven they were founded in 1920, but, unlike them, they accepted women members. Where is their centennial stamp Canada Post?
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PRUDENCE HEWARD at AUCTION
"Farm Scene, Brockville", c.1938, by Prudence Heward, whose works rarely appear at auction, has sold for $34,250. at Heffel (Nov. 2019) Will it reappear at the Brockville Museum's upcoming Heward show, "Painting Picnic with Prudence Heward"?
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UNINVITED at the MCMICHAEL
From June 27, 2020. "Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment" will include more than 200 pieces of art by a generation of women painters, photographers, sculptors, architects and filmmakers. Look for the Beaver Hall Group of painters, among them Anne Savage, Lilias Torrance Newton and Prudence Heward.
“The art made by Canadian women in this period is second to none in quality,” says Sarah Milroy, curator of the exhibition. “All of us at the McMichael are delighted to shine the spotlight at long last on this overlooked cohort of creative Canadians. This show builds on the scholarship of many curators who have been at the barricades for decades championing women’s art. With Uninvited, we will bring all of these passionate voices together.”
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The Brockville Museum has recently acquired this painting by Ruth Eliot which will be part of a very special exhibition “Painting Picnic with Prudence Heward” in 2020. Heward spent her summers next door to the Eliots at the family's Fernbank cottage. "The Brockville Museum wishes to extend a sincere thanks to Evelyn Walters for the donation of the Eliot painting to the museum’s collection and for her assistance in locating Brockville-related Heward works for the purpose of this exhibition. Walters is the author of 'The Women of Beaver Hall' and 'The Beaver Hall Group and Its Legacy'”. The Monitor, Spring 2019. More
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CALL FOR PAPERS
"Modernisms, Inside & Out"
The 4th conference of the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative
Toronto, 15 – 17 October 2020
An important opportunity to reassess women’s visual and material engagements with the modern as a cultural force in Canada.
http://cwahi.concordia.ca/news/callforpapers.html
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Portraiture and the Body
The 4th conference of the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative
Toronto, 15 – 17 October 2020
An important opportunity to reassess women’s visual and material engagements with the modern as a cultural force in Canada.
http://cwahi.concordia.ca/news/callforpapers.html
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Portraiture and the Body
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“Portraiture and the Body” is one of the themes in "Look Again! The AGW Collection at 75 Years" at the Art Gallery of Windsor. This on-going exhibition continues to celebrate the historical collections leading to the 20th century. Look for the Hewards. https://www.agw.ca/exhibition/482
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Did Prudence Heward Steal the Show?
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Colours of Jazz: 1920s Modernism in Montreal: The Beaver Hall Group. In his review of the exhibition, J.D. Campbell wrote,
"While the curators attempt to expose as empty myth the widespread belief that it was a women’s group ––they correctly point out that as many men as women contributed to the fame and fortune of the group, their numbers almost evenly split –– a still more radiant and irrefutable truth emerges. The work of the women ruled in this show. Edwin Holgate is surely a significant male voice, but the curatorial historicist understanding is undermined, if not rendered moot, by the magisterial work of Prudence Heward, who effortlessly commanded the floor here." James D. Campbell, “1920s Modernism in Montreal: The Beaver Hall Group”, Border Crossings, v.35, no.2: 150-151. |
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Treasure Hunt
Treasure Hunt
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Any paintings signed “P.H.” tucked away in your attic? Image: "Georgian Bay" by Prudence Heward. |
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"Look Again! The AGW Collection at 75 Years”
"Look Again! The AGW Collection at 75 Years”
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An outstanding collection at the Art Gallery of Windsor. Look for the Beaver Hall paintings. https://www.agw.ca/exhibition/482 Prudence Heward’s controversial "Femme au bord de la mer”, ("The Bather"), 1930. |
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Canada and Impressionism New Horizons
Opened in Munich on July 19, 2019 and will travel to Lausanne, Montpellier and Ottawa. Look for the Beaver Hall artists. https://www.kunsthalle-muc.de/en/
Images: Edwin Holgate, "Ludivine", 1930; Prudence Heward, "Anna", c. 1927
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Prudence Heward's Library
Opened in Munich on July 19, 2019 and will travel to Lausanne, Montpellier and Ottawa. Look for the Beaver Hall artists. https://www.kunsthalle-muc.de/en/
Images: Edwin Holgate, "Ludivine", 1930; Prudence Heward, "Anna", c. 1927
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Prudence Heward's Library
“The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God”, 1932, the controversial book by George Bernard Shaw, was found in Prudence Heward’s extensive library. Engravings by John Farleigh.
“The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God”, 1932, the controversial book by George Bernard Shaw, was found in Prudence Heward’s extensive library. Engravings by John Farleigh.
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Extraordinary Women: The Beaver Hall Group
Extraordinary Women: The Beaver Hall Group
Revue Cinema, Toronto
July 21, 2019 11 AM
Gerta Moray, Professor Emerita at Guelph University will discuss the Beaver Hall Group and the significance of the work they did.
Watch the NFB documentary, “By Woman’s Hand” based on three leading members in the group – Prudence Heward’s character studies and controversial nudes, Ann Savage’s art deco landscapes, and Sarah Robertson’s over-the-wall glimpses of convent life.
Prudence Heward, "At The Theatre"
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Congratulations to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts!
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They have recently acquired two previously unseen Kathleen Moir Morris paintings: 1. Gardens of the Grand Séminaire, Montreal and 2. Sketch for Beaver Hall Hill, Montreal.
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Ladylikeness: Historical Portraits of Women by Women
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Glenbow Museum, Calgary, until Jan 5, 2020
Through much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women were denied access to the established system of art school training, based largely in the study of the male nude model. Gradually, it became acceptable for upper-class young ladies to learn the basics of sketching, drawing and painting, but women were discouraged from becoming serious about art: it was considered unladylike for any woman to achieve more than a limited proficiency. True ladies dabbled decorously. Their small artistic efforts represented a genteel cultural polish intended to make them shine as social and domestic ornaments. Lilias Torrance Newton, Portrait of Madame Lily Valty |
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A Model in the Studio Montreal 1880-1950
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to May 26, 2019
An exhibition of once-repressed depictions of nudes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that reveals the taboos of an artistic tradition. It features drawings, sketches and sculptures in various states of undress created between 1880 and 1950 by more than 30 artists. Look for Prudence Heward drawings.
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Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to May 26, 2019
An exhibition of once-repressed depictions of nudes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that reveals the taboos of an artistic tradition. It features drawings, sketches and sculptures in various states of undress created between 1880 and 1950 by more than 30 artists. Look for Prudence Heward drawings.
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BOOK CITING
Alan Klinkhoff writes, "Risking a perpetuation of a legend, she [Walters] then cautions that some of the lore "create a man larger than life" and that some may be "fabrication". https://www.klinkhoff.ca/blog/8241. (March 22, 2019); See: "John Y. Johnstone", The Beaver Hall Group and Its Legacy, p. 53.
Image: John Y. Johnstone, "Bonsecours Market", 1917
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Image: John Y. Johnstone, "Bonsecours Market", 1917
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"Unformable Things" at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
January 19 to October 27, 2019. "Unformable Things: Emily Carr and Some Canadian Modernists" at the AGGV. Look for the Beaver Hall women: Prudence Heward, Sarah Robertson, Anne Savage. https://aggv.ca/exhibits/current/unformable-things/
Image: Sarah Robertson, "Brome Lake, Quebec", 1942
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January 19 to October 27, 2019. "Unformable Things: Emily Carr and Some Canadian Modernists" at the AGGV. Look for the Beaver Hall women: Prudence Heward, Sarah Robertson, Anne Savage. https://aggv.ca/exhibits/current/unformable-things/
Image: Sarah Robertson, "Brome Lake, Quebec", 1942
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Pepita Ferrari
December 30, 2018. Pepita Ferrari has died. In 1994, she directed and co-produced her first documentary at the National Film Board –– By Women's Hand –– about three members of the Beaver Hall Group: Prudence Heward, Sarah Robertson, and Anne Savage.
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December 30, 2018. Pepita Ferrari has died. In 1994, she directed and co-produced her first documentary at the National Film Board –– By Women's Hand –– about three members of the Beaver Hall Group: Prudence Heward, Sarah Robertson, and Anne Savage.
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The Women Have Been Invited to the McMichael!
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ont. is organizing "Uninvited", an exhibition of Canadian female artists of the early 20th century, that will open in 2020. It will include work by such names as Lilias Torrance Newton, Prudence Heward and Paraskeva Clark. (Globe & Mail)
Image: "October", n.d., by Beaver Hall's Mabel Lockerby. Gift to the McMichael by the artist.
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The McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ont. is organizing "Uninvited", an exhibition of Canadian female artists of the early 20th century, that will open in 2020. It will include work by such names as Lilias Torrance Newton, Prudence Heward and Paraskeva Clark. (Globe & Mail)
Image: "October", n.d., by Beaver Hall's Mabel Lockerby. Gift to the McMichael by the artist.
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Kirk Howard, Member of the Order of Canada
Congratulations, Kirk! What an honour to be one of your authors!
December 2018: Kirk Howard has been appointed Member of the Order of Canada, "for his commitment to Canadian authors and to a domestically owned publishing industry."
John Kirk Howard is a Canadian book publisher and founder and president of Dundurn Press, one of the largest independently owned publishing houses in Canada. In 2012 Howard received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal "for publishing over decades a range of books on Canadian heritage".
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Parc Prudence Heward
December 2018: Kirk Howard has been appointed Member of the Order of Canada, "for his commitment to Canadian authors and to a domestically owned publishing industry."
John Kirk Howard is a Canadian book publisher and founder and president of Dundurn Press, one of the largest independently owned publishing houses in Canada. In 2012 Howard received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal "for publishing over decades a range of books on Canadian heritage".
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Parc Prudence Heward
Let's all endorse the motion by the conseil municipal of Peter McGill to name the park at the corner of Guy and Paxton the "Parc Prudence Heward"!
Cathy Wong: "Hier soir au conseil municipal, j’étais toute émue lorsque la proposition de nommer le parc Prudence Heward (au coin de Guy et Paxton) fut adoptée à l’unanimité, rendant hommage à la peintre montréalaise Efa Prudence Heward dans Peter-McGill" Nov 20, 2018
Cathy Wong: "Hier soir au conseil municipal, j’étais toute émue lorsque la proposition de nommer le parc Prudence Heward (au coin de Guy et Paxton) fut adoptée à l’unanimité, rendant hommage à la peintre montréalaise Efa Prudence Heward dans Peter-McGill" Nov 20, 2018
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A selection of books found in Prudence Heward's library:
Thomas Craven, Modern Art, 1934
John Dewey, Art as Experience, 1934
T. W. Earp, Modern Movement in Painting, in The Studio, 1935
Roger Fry, Living Painters, Duncan Grant, 1930
Roger Fry, Transformations, 1926
Robert Henri, The Art Spirit, 1923
Julius Meier-Grafe, Van Gogh, A Biological Study, 1922
Sir William Orpen, The Outline of Art, 1924
G.B. Shaw, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God
Quintanello, Louis, All the Brave: Drawings of the Spanish Civil War
Prudence Heward, Knowlton, 1941.
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A selection of books found in Prudence Heward's library:
Thomas Craven, Modern Art, 1934
John Dewey, Art as Experience, 1934
T. W. Earp, Modern Movement in Painting, in The Studio, 1935
Roger Fry, Living Painters, Duncan Grant, 1930
Roger Fry, Transformations, 1926
Robert Henri, The Art Spirit, 1923
Julius Meier-Grafe, Van Gogh, A Biological Study, 1922
Sir William Orpen, The Outline of Art, 1924
G.B. Shaw, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God
Quintanello, Louis, All the Brave: Drawings of the Spanish Civil War
Prudence Heward, Knowlton, 1941.
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From "The Monitor", the Brockville Museum Newsletter, Fall 2018, p.5:
Exhibit News... the BIG story
As if the developments listed on the previous page weren't exciting enough, we've got a heck of an announcement to make about a temporary exhibit that we are planning for 2020 ... We are currently working with a number of significant museums, galleries, and private collectors to host an exhibit featuring the art work of Beaver Hall Group member, Prudence Heward.
Prudence Heward (1896-1947) lived in Montreal but she was a descendent of the Jones family, a prominent Loyalist family that had settled in Brockville a hundred years before she was born. Her family maintained their connection to Brockville with a cottage at Fernbank, where Heward spent many of her summers. It was here that Heward hosted "painting picnics" for her friends in the Beaver Hall Group, including Sarah Robertson and A.Y. Jackson (of Group of Seven fame).
As a result of these painting picnics, there are a number of paintings by Heward (and her friends) of Brockville area scenes. These paintings are scattered among friends and family, private collectors, and at museums and galleries throughout Ontario and Quebec.
The Brockville Museum is currently negotiating loan agreements with many of these collectors and institutions to bring these Brockville-related works back to Brockville for a very special temporary exhibit in 2020 that we are calling, "Painting Picnic with Prudence Heward". So far we have been blown away by the support that we have received from those caring for these works, who seem to share our excitement for this unique exhibition.
We hope that you will share in our excitement and that you will plan on visiting us in 2020 to see this unique collection of works assembled in one place for the first time. In the meantime, we are looking for exhibit sponsors to help us cover transportation and exhibition costs associated with properly handling and securing these one-of-a-kind, nationally significant works.
A huge thank you to Evelyn Walters, author of "The Women of Beaver Hall" and "The Beaver Hall Group and Its Legacy" for facilitating some essential connections and for sharing her knowledge with us and with the Twitter-verse. This exhibition would not be happenting without her passion!
Submitted by N.W.
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ADD YOUR BROCKVILLE PAINTINGS TO THE SHOW!
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“Painting Picnics with Prudence Heward”, an exhibition of works by Heward and friends who painted near "Fernbank", the family cottage, is scheduled to open at the Brockville Museum in March 2020.
The museum is currently negotiating with collectors and institutions to bring Brockville-related works back to Brockville.
Prudence Heward, "Summer Landscape near Brockville", n.d. (The Beaver Hall Group and Its Legacy, p.97)
Ruth M. Eliot, "View of the St. Lawrence River from the Eliot Cottage"
Brockville Museum
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William Brymner (1855-1925) was an artist and highly influential teacher at the Art Association of Montreal for 35 years. Many of the Beaver Hall artists were his students. They were encouraged to explore the new modernist approaches and to continue their studies in Europe.
Cartoon by Beaver Hall student John Y. Johnstone.
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Cartoon by Beaver Hall student John Y. Johnstone.
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"Morning, Lake Superior" by Lawren Harris once belonged to Elise Kingman whose portrait by Lilias Torrance Newton is on the cover of The Beaver Hall Group and Its Legacy.
https://www.heffel.com/auction/Details_E.aspx?LotNo=136&SaleID=260. |
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Brockville, Ontario's Eliza M. Jones was a cattle breeder, butter producer, and author of "Dairying For Profit: or, the Poor Man’s Cow" (1892). She was hailed as the "best known dairywoman on the continent". See the dedication to the grandmother of Prudence Heward, Canada's outstanding female artist, in the opening page of "The Women of Beaver Hall, Canadian Modernist Painters".
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Brockville, Ontario's Eliza M. Jones was a cattle breeder, butter producer, and author of "Dairying For Profit: or, the Poor Man’s Cow" (1892). She was hailed as the "best known dairywoman on the continent". See the dedication to the grandmother of Prudence Heward, Canada's outstanding female artist, in the opening page of "The Women of Beaver Hall, Canadian Modernist Painters".
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On March 8th, International Women's Day, and every day let’s celebrate the Women of Beaver Hall, contemporaries of the Group of Seven, who are finally getting the recognition they deserve. If only they were here to enjoy it….
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Out of the vault and into the spotlight
"Forty pieces of art from McGill’s Visual Art Collection, that are usually in storage or in less accessible areas, are now on public display. There’s a beautiful, new and bright art display waiting for those who get off the elevator at the 4th floor of the McLennan-Redpath Library. Forty pieces of art from McGill’s Visual Arts Collection, that are usually in storage or in less accessible areas, are hanging on three walls salon-style, covering almost all of the space. The Visible Storage Gallery, which features work by members of the Group of Seven, the Beaver Hall Group, among others, is part of a worldwide trend in museums and collections to bring art out of the vaults and into public view." McGill Reporter, June 5, 2018.
Out of the vault and into the spotlight
"Forty pieces of art from McGill’s Visual Art Collection, that are usually in storage or in less accessible areas, are now on public display. There’s a beautiful, new and bright art display waiting for those who get off the elevator at the 4th floor of the McLennan-Redpath Library. Forty pieces of art from McGill’s Visual Arts Collection, that are usually in storage or in less accessible areas, are hanging on three walls salon-style, covering almost all of the space. The Visible Storage Gallery, which features work by members of the Group of Seven, the Beaver Hall Group, among others, is part of a worldwide trend in museums and collections to bring art out of the vaults and into public view." McGill Reporter, June 5, 2018.
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Have a look inside The Women of Beaver Hall
"It might seem that art historians require only art to go about their business. In fact, they also need stories to link the works together and make them jump off gallery walls."
(Alison Gilmore, CBC/arts) more ...
Nora Collyer Emily Coonan Prudence Heward Mabel Lockerby
Henrietta Mabel May Kathleen Morris Lilias Torrance Newton Sarah Robertson
Anne Savage Ethel Seath
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"BY WOMAN'S HAND" a National Film Board production
"BY WOMAN'S HAND" a National Film Board production
The NFB has posted “By Woman’s Hand”, a film about three members of the Women of Beaver Hall who created an artistic environment of mutual support that lasted for more than three decades.
Download
Download
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WHY DID SHE GIVE UP A PROMISING CAREER?
“I only blame myself. I just wanted to live for him. He was very good to me and we loved being together all the time.” Regina Seiden, founding member of the BHG who gave up her career when she married artist Eric Goldberg. “Dora”, 1923. (National Gallery of Canada)
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THE KING-BYNG CRISIS
THE KING-BYNG CRISIS
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“Willie” and “Byng”, the family dogs painted by Kathleen Moir Morris. Likely named for the King-Byng constitutional crisis in 1926.
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FILMMAKERS
It’s time for another film on the BeaverHall Group! Need funding? Go to blog.nfb.ca/blog/2018/01/2… The National Film Board's By Woman's Hand was made in 1994 and pays tribute to only three of the Women of Beaver Hall artists –– Prudence Heward, Sarah Robertson, and Anne Savage. However, there were twenty-five artists, both men and women, affiliated with the Group –– a variety of interesting characters whose trials and tribulations portray life as an artist during Montreal's Jazz Age.
FILMMAKERS
It’s time for another film on the BeaverHall Group! Need funding? Go to blog.nfb.ca/blog/2018/01/2… The National Film Board's By Woman's Hand was made in 1994 and pays tribute to only three of the Women of Beaver Hall artists –– Prudence Heward, Sarah Robertson, and Anne Savage. However, there were twenty-five artists, both men and women, affiliated with the Group –– a variety of interesting characters whose trials and tribulations portray life as an artist during Montreal's Jazz Age.
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The Beaver Hall Group in Fashion
Portrait of Honor Heward, 1924, sister of Prudence Heward by Lilias Torrance Newton. "Nonnie" was the mother of former MP Heward Grafftey who in "Portraits of a Life" writes of her talent for sewing. The pattern for her dress can be found in Butterick patterns, Delineator magazine, January 1924, p. 38.
Portrait of Honor Heward, 1924, sister of Prudence Heward by Lilias Torrance Newton. "Nonnie" was the mother of former MP Heward Grafftey who in "Portraits of a Life" writes of her talent for sewing. The pattern for her dress can be found in Butterick patterns, Delineator magazine, January 1924, p. 38.
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Storage problem:
"What about the 90 percent of objects major museums have in storage that they almost never display? .... Well, aside from maybe someday appearing in a scholarly article a few dozen professionals read (which they could do no matter what museum owned them), just how are these works creating cultural value if no one is looking at them?" Michael O’Hare:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/Art-museums-should-sell-works-in-storage-to-avoid-12489563.php
"What about the 90 percent of objects major museums have in storage that they almost never display? .... Well, aside from maybe someday appearing in a scholarly article a few dozen professionals read (which they could do no matter what museum owned them), just how are these works creating cultural value if no one is looking at them?" Michael O’Hare:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/Art-museums-should-sell-works-in-storage-to-avoid-12489563.php
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The University Club of Toronto has found a Holgate, a long-awaited addition to their Group of Seven and Beaver Hall Group collection!
https://universitycluboftoronto.com/images/sitepicts/September%202017%20UClub%20newsletter%20final.pdf
The University Club of Toronto has found a Holgate, a long-awaited addition to their Group of Seven and Beaver Hall Group collection!
https://universitycluboftoronto.com/images/sitepicts/September%202017%20UClub%20newsletter%20final.pdf
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Centre d'histoire de Montréal
Memoires des Montréalais
Olivier Paré
30 novembre 2017
Emily Coonan (1885-1971), peintre canadienne reconnue pour ses portraits et paysages modernistes, a grandi et vécu à Pointe-Saint-Charles.
1885: Naissance d’Emily Coonan à Pointe-Saint-Charles
Emily Coonan naît à Pointe-Saint-Charles en 1885 de parents irlandais catholiques. Elle aurait grandi dans la maison familiale de l’ancienne rue de la Ferme (Farm Street), située entre les rues Wellington à l’est, De Condé à l’ouest et Saint-Patrick au nord. Son père, William Coonan, travaille à l’époque comme machiniste pour la compagnie ferroviaire du Grand Tronc, installée à l’extrémité est du quartier. Dans sa jeunesse, Emily fréquente l’académie Sainte-Anne, située dans la rue McCord (aujourd’hui de la Montagne). Malgré de modestes revenus familiaux, les parents d’Emily tiennent à investir dans des cours d’arts et de musique pour leurs enfants. Ainsi, très tôt, Emily Coonan est exposée au monde artistique et littéraire.
Une carrière remarquable
Déjà à la fin des années 1890, elle entame des études au Conseil des arts et manufactures du Québec. De grands noms du monde artistique, comme Edmond Dyonnet, lui enseignent la peinture. Entre 1905 et 1917, elle fréquente la Art Association of Montreal, société précurseure du Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal. Dès les années 1910, ses œuvres attirent l’attention des critiques d’art. Le Daily Herald la qualifie en 1913 de « prodige de Pointe-Saint-Charles ». Trois années consécutives, en 1914, 1915 et 1916, elle est lauréate du Women Art’s Society Prize. Elle reçoit également en 1914 une bourse de 1000 dollars lui permettant d’aller étudier en Europe. Au tout début des années 1920, Emily Coonan se joint au Beaver Hall, un important regroupement d’artistes modernistes. Coonan se distingue des autres femmes du groupe en raison de ses origines : la plupart sont protestantes et proviennent de milieux aisés. À partir de 1933, cependant, Coonan travaille seule et se concentre par la suite sur des œuvres impressionnistes, inspirées des paysages du fleuve Saint-Laurent. Emily Coonan meurt en 1971 à Montréal, après avoir passé une bonne partie de sa vie dans la maison familiale de la rue de la Ferme. Ses œuvres sont désormais exposées dans les grands musées d’art canadiens, notamment au Musée des beaux-arts du Canada.
Contribution à la recherche : Société d’histoire de Pointe-Saint-Charles.
Références bibliographiques WALTERS, Evelyn. The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian Modernist Painters, Toronto, Dundurn Press, 2005, 192 p.
WALTERS, Evelyn. The Beaver Hall Group and Its Legacy, Toronto, Dundurn Press, 2017, 183 p.
here to edit.
Emily Coonan - œuvrePlus de détails sur l'image
Musée McCord. VIEW-14005.
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Wanted
Information on Canadian sculptor Sigitta Seideman who exhibited at Oakville’s Brand Gallery in 1978. Contacts Image: Deborah |
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Fake or Fortune?
This painting recently sold on eBay for C$816.61 as a work by Beaver Hall's Kathleen Morris. Caveat emptor!
Fake or Fortune?
This painting recently sold on eBay for C$816.61 as a work by Beaver Hall's Kathleen Morris. Caveat emptor!
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In your attic? On your wall?
Wanted: paintings by Beaver Hall painters Jeanne de Crèvecoeur, Darrell Morrisey, Sybil Robertson, and Regina Seiden. Please contact editor.
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In your attic? On your wall?
Wanted: paintings by Beaver Hall painters Jeanne de Crèvecoeur, Darrell Morrisey, Sybil Robertson, and Regina Seiden. Please contact editor.
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PRUDENCE HEWARD?
A London (England) auction house has acknowledged its error in attributing this painting to Beaver Hall's Prudence Heward.
A London (England) auction house has acknowledged its error in attributing this painting to Beaver Hall's Prudence Heward.
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In your attic? On your wall?
Looking for works by Sybil Robertson, member of the Beaver Hall Group who gave up painting in 1926 when she married lawyer Francis Curzon Dobell. He died accidentally in 1941, and only after her children were older did she return to exhibiting again. Most of her works were portraits of family and friends. Contact
(Image: Portrait of Sybil by A.E. Hampson)
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In your attic? On your wall?
Looking for works by Sybil Robertson, member of the Beaver Hall Group who gave up painting in 1926 when she married lawyer Francis Curzon Dobell. He died accidentally in 1941, and only after her children were older did she return to exhibiting again. Most of her works were portraits of family and friends. Contact
(Image: Portrait of Sybil by A.E. Hampson)
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Torrance Newton’s Elise Kingman on the terrace! Il Cortile café with its Tuscan style terrace and cozy dining room. Montreal's bouche à oreille. Not far from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. |
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Looking for art books?
A well-kept secret? Don't miss the amazing bookstore on the bottom level of the Ingram Gallery in Yorkville: historical? contemporary? rare? You'll probably find it.
http://www.ingramgallery.com/publications/index.html
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A well-kept secret? Don't miss the amazing bookstore on the bottom level of the Ingram Gallery in Yorkville: historical? contemporary? rare? You'll probably find it.
http://www.ingramgallery.com/publications/index.html
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Beaver Hall Group in Fashion
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At the travelling exhibition, 1920s Montreal:The Beaver Hall Group, Edwin Holgate's grandniece is photographed next to Lilias Torrance Newton's portrait of his wife Frances. See The Beaver Hall Group and Its Legacy, p. 38 & 121.
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Nora Collyer 1917
The Early Years
Read more in The Victory, annual publication of the Trafalgar School for Girls
Studied at Trafalgar: 1910-1917
Studied at Art Association of Montreal
Taught art at Trafalgar
Member of The Women of Beaver Hall Group of Painters
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For your library (or a perfect gift). A matching set of Canadian art books published by Dundurn Press:
1. F.H. Varley by Katerina Atanassova
2. A.Y. Jackson: The Life of a Landscape Painter by Wayne Larson
3. The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian Modernist Painters by Evelyn Walters
4. The Beaver Hall Group and Its Legacy by Evelyn Walters (Feb 2017 release)
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Take A Peek into Beaver Hall History:
Phil Jenkins' article "Helpful Homesteaders at Marshall's Bay" in the Ottawa Citizen (Oct 30, 2016) recounts his trip down the “twisting, maple leaf covered dirt forest path” past the hundred-year-old Morris cottage. It is in this unspoiled area near Arnprior, Ontario, that Kathleen Morris spent her summers.
Comment: Thanks for bringing back fond memories. While researching Kathleen Morris for “The Women of Beaver Hall”, I, too, traveled down the “twisting, maple leaf covered dirt forest path” to the Morris cottage at Marshall’s Bay. What’s more, I recently found her painting of the cottage as it was in the 1930s. (Evelyn Walters)
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Phil Jenkins' article "Helpful Homesteaders at Marshall's Bay" in the Ottawa Citizen (Oct 30, 2016) recounts his trip down the “twisting, maple leaf covered dirt forest path” past the hundred-year-old Morris cottage. It is in this unspoiled area near Arnprior, Ontario, that Kathleen Morris spent her summers.
Comment: Thanks for bringing back fond memories. While researching Kathleen Morris for “The Women of Beaver Hall”, I, too, traveled down the “twisting, maple leaf covered dirt forest path” to the Morris cottage at Marshall’s Bay. What’s more, I recently found her painting of the cottage as it was in the 1930s. (Evelyn Walters)
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Keep on looking!
We are one step closer to locating the missing portrait of skier Margaret Morrison by Lilias Torrance Newton. Researcher John Geoghegan has found this blurry photograph of it. Have you seen the painting? Do you know where it is? See Contact.
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We are one step closer to locating the missing portrait of skier Margaret Morrison by Lilias Torrance Newton. Researcher John Geoghegan has found this blurry photograph of it. Have you seen the painting? Do you know where it is? See Contact.
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Collect Stamps: Prudence Heward's Rollande, 2010 Designer Hélène L’Heureux thoroughly explored Heward's large and varied body of work. “Almost immediately, her figure paintings stood out as her most significant pieces,” she says. “At the Theatre and Rollande exude a sense of great depth. They seem to give expression to the difficult position of women in the modern world—a difficulty that’s carried into every sphere of social life.” Canada Post |
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Look for Anne Savage:
"The Dorval Museum of Local History and Heritage is on Chemin Bord du Lac, or Lakeshore Drive, in what used to be the coach house of the private Forest and Stream Club next door. The mission of the museum, open since 2002, is to inform the public about the founders of Dorval, some of its more high-profile citizens, and events in its history. Maybe take a few minutes to contemplate the splendid view of Lac St-Louis from one of the benches out back.
There are three exhibition rooms and the impeccably preserved former horse stalls are a big draw for kids. On the upper level, the community’s history is presented in a lively timeline spanning more than 300 years. In the large room at the front of the main level, the walls are hung with portraits and brief descriptions of prominent residents. Among them are Anne Savage, an artist with the Beaver Hall group and an art educator; Frances Oneson, one of Canada’s first female air traffic controllers; and Henry (Harry) Markland Molson, a onetime Dorval mayor who was owner of the Molson Bank at the time of his death in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Like Molson, some were only summer residents of the community; the rest of the year they lived in downtown Montreal’s Golden Square Mile." (Susan Schwartz, Montreal Gazette, Aug 6, 2016).
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"The Dorval Museum of Local History and Heritage is on Chemin Bord du Lac, or Lakeshore Drive, in what used to be the coach house of the private Forest and Stream Club next door. The mission of the museum, open since 2002, is to inform the public about the founders of Dorval, some of its more high-profile citizens, and events in its history. Maybe take a few minutes to contemplate the splendid view of Lac St-Louis from one of the benches out back.
There are three exhibition rooms and the impeccably preserved former horse stalls are a big draw for kids. On the upper level, the community’s history is presented in a lively timeline spanning more than 300 years. In the large room at the front of the main level, the walls are hung with portraits and brief descriptions of prominent residents. Among them are Anne Savage, an artist with the Beaver Hall group and an art educator; Frances Oneson, one of Canada’s first female air traffic controllers; and Henry (Harry) Markland Molson, a onetime Dorval mayor who was owner of the Molson Bank at the time of his death in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Like Molson, some were only summer residents of the community; the rest of the year they lived in downtown Montreal’s Golden Square Mile." (Susan Schwartz, Montreal Gazette, Aug 6, 2016).
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SIR ALEXANDER GALT
Sir Alexander Galt, one of the Fathers of Confederation, was the great uncle of Beaver Hall’s Anne Savage.
Sir Alexander Galt, one of the Fathers of Confederation, was the great uncle of Beaver Hall’s Anne Savage.
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LOOKING FOR A TORRANCE NEWTON PORTRAIT:
Have you seen the portrait of skier Margaret Morrison? Torrance Newton painted ”Margaret Morrison” in 1946. Is it on your wall? Do you know where it is? This photo might help.
See Contact.
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See Contact.
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Watch the National Film Board's DVDs:
1. By Woman's Hand
Purchase @NFB
A tribute to three Women of Beaver Hall artists –– Prudence Heward, Sarah Robertson, and Anne Savage –– "whose lives and works were almost forgotten".
"subtly constructed and wonderfully comprehensive with a richness and depth that few films manage to achieve" Will Aitkins, CBC Radio.
2. Watch: Modern Art In Canada/ The Painter Speaks
Purchase @NFB
This video compilation consists of two videos respectively entitled Modern Art in Canada - The Beginnings, 18 min., and The Painter Speaks - Canadian Abstract Painters, 18 min. Looking at works of art from 1900 through the 1930s, the first video examines the influence of the European avant-garde over some Canadian artists who contributed to modern art development in Canada. The second video contains archival radio, television and film footage that shows Canadian artists discussing the roots of their interest in abstraction, as well as their individual approaches to it.
Purchase @NFB
This video compilation consists of two videos respectively entitled Modern Art in Canada - The Beginnings, 18 min., and The Painter Speaks - Canadian Abstract Painters, 18 min. Looking at works of art from 1900 through the 1930s, the first video examines the influence of the European avant-garde over some Canadian artists who contributed to modern art development in Canada. The second video contains archival radio, television and film footage that shows Canadian artists discussing the roots of their interest in abstraction, as well as their individual approaches to it.
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Tradition and Modernism in Quebec
Musée National des beaux-arts du Québec
Québec City QC
Anytime: permanent collection
Travel back in time to the earliest annual fine arts exhibitions. On display are two artistic realities, the birth of modern art and the desire to preserve traditional values, at a time when they collide. Look for Beaver Hall painters Adrien Hébert and Edwin Holgate.
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Tradition and Modernism in Quebec
Musée National des beaux-arts du Québec
Québec City QC
Anytime: permanent collection
Travel back in time to the earliest annual fine arts exhibitions. On display are two artistic realities, the birth of modern art and the desire to preserve traditional values, at a time when they collide. Look for Beaver Hall painters Adrien Hébert and Edwin Holgate.
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Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario
Sarah Robertson (1891-1948) The Blue Sleigh c.1924, oil on canvas. Collection of the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound, bequest of Norah Thomson de Pencier, 1974.
Mark your calendars: This painting will soon be travelling to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in the fall of 2015 and then on to the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Gallery of Windsor and the Glenbow Museum in 2016, when it will be included in the exhibition 1920s Modernism in Montreal: The Beaver Hall Group.
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Sarah Robertson (1891-1948) The Blue Sleigh c.1924, oil on canvas. Collection of the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound, bequest of Norah Thomson de Pencier, 1974.
Mark your calendars: This painting will soon be travelling to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in the fall of 2015 and then on to the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Gallery of Windsor and the Glenbow Museum in 2016, when it will be included in the exhibition 1920s Modernism in Montreal: The Beaver Hall Group.
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Looking for a Darrell Morrisey:
After four years of sleuthing, we've finally located a Darrell Morrisey painting in the inventory of the West End Gallery in Westmount. Morrisey (1897-1930), an original member of the Beaver Hall Group, died suddenly at the age of thirty three. Join the search and check garage sales, antique markets, art galleries, or even your attics. See contact.
Read Stephen Morrisey's dedication to Darrell Morrisey on the 115th anniversary of her all-too-early death: http://www.coraclepress.com/the-chapbooks/darrell-morrisey-a-forgotten-beaver-hall-artist/.
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Looking for a Jeanne de Crevecoeur:
After four years of sleuthing, we've finally located a Darrell Morrisey painting in the inventory of the West End Gallery in Westmount. Morrisey (1897-1930), an original member of the Beaver Hall Group, died suddenly at the age of thirty three. Join the search and check garage sales, antique markets, art galleries, or even your attics. See contact.
Read Stephen Morrisey's dedication to Darrell Morrisey on the 115th anniversary of her all-too-early death: http://www.coraclepress.com/the-chapbooks/darrell-morrisey-a-forgotten-beaver-hall-artist/.
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Looking for a Jeanne de Crevecoeur:
An original member of the Beaver Hall Group, Jeanne de Crèvecoeur (1890-1970) gave up exhibiting in 1930 when she began to work as an occupational therapist for the Montreal Industrial Institute. This illustration from a 1914 RCA catalogue is the only example of her work that has been located.
Update: Found, but lost again! This Jeanne de Crèvecoeur painting was sold at Michael Spooner's Auctions, Ottawa, in March 2018. Est $600-$800. Buyer unknown.
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CANADIAN LANDSCAPE by Radford Crawley
Have a look at this quaint 1941 National Film Board documentary (17 min. 28 sec.) which follows A.Y. Jackson, Group of Seven member and Beaver Hall Group president, as he discusses his approach to painting and shows some some of his work in progress:http://www.nfb.ca/film/canadian_landscape/
Have a look at this quaint 1941 National Film Board documentary (17 min. 28 sec.) which follows A.Y. Jackson, Group of Seven member and Beaver Hall Group president, as he discusses his approach to painting and shows some some of his work in progress:http://www.nfb.ca/film/canadian_landscape/
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The House of Commons Heritage Collection
PARLIAMENT HILL, Ottawa, Ontario
Lilias Torrance Newton was the first Canadian to paint the official
portrait of Queen Elizabeth II for Rideau Hall.
Several portraits by Lilias Torrance Newton are on view in the House of Commons. Look for The Honourable William Ross Macdonald (1951) and The Honourable Alan Aylesworth Macnaughton (~1964) in the Speakers' Gallery and for Queen Elizabeth II in the Senate area.
(The Canadian government has recently honoured the Queen's diamond jubilee with a new portrait by Phil Richards.)
Image: Lilias Torrance Newton, Queen Elizabeth II, 1976.
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Where are the stolen A.Y. paintings?
A.Y. Jackson Lookout at Municipal Rd 55 and HWY 144, Ontario provides a spectacular view of High Falls cascading 150 feet into the Sudbury Basin, a famous meteorite impact site, located thirty minutes northwest of Sudbury, Ontario. A.Y. Jackson immortalized the scene in Spring on the Onaping River, one of two stolen from Sudbury Secondary Schools shortly after his death in 1974. The paintings have not been recovered.
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Agnes Etherington Art Centre
Kingston, Ontario
Emily Coonan, Study (Evelina), c.1910
This recent acquisition which was originally included in the 1910 spring exhibition of the Art Association of Montreal might be the highlight of your next visit to the AEAC. The Montreal Herald described Coonan's submissions as "the work of a born colorist of more than average talent." (Purchased for $48,800. at the November 2008 Heffel auction).
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Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Towards Modernism
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
1339 Sherbrooke Street W., Montreal, Quebec
A new pavilion at the MMFA known as the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion houses the gallery's Canadian Art collection. The Sherbrooke Street level is dedicated to the Age of the Refus Global manifesto. It displays works by Quebec artists such as Paul Emile Borduas and Riopelle. The next level, Towards Modernism, showcases the Beaver Hall Group, the Group of Seven and others such as as Ozias Leduc, Suzor-Cote and James Wilson Morrice. The third level is reserved for Quebec's religious, historic and contemporary Amerindian art.
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Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
1339 Sherbrooke Street W., Montreal, Quebec
A new pavilion at the MMFA known as the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion houses the gallery's Canadian Art collection. The Sherbrooke Street level is dedicated to the Age of the Refus Global manifesto. It displays works by Quebec artists such as Paul Emile Borduas and Riopelle. The next level, Towards Modernism, showcases the Beaver Hall Group, the Group of Seven and others such as as Ozias Leduc, Suzor-Cote and James Wilson Morrice. The third level is reserved for Quebec's religious, historic and contemporary Amerindian art.
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