The Women of Beaver Hall (1 of 2)
Modernism in Jazz Age Montreal
Hello friends,
This month, I plan to celebrate some of the Canadian visual artists whose works should (in my humble opinion) be better known. Yesterday, I published a note on Inuk artist Kenojuak Ashevak, (ᕿᓐᓄᐊᔪᐊᖅ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ, Qinnuajuaq Aasivak). Today, I want to shine a light on the 10 women associated with the Beaver Hall Group, all of whom were influenced by celebrated modernist painter William Brymner.
Ready? Let’s travel back in time to Montreal in the late 1910s. It is the jazz age, the dawn of modernism, and the Beaver Hall Group, a cohort of nineteen artists who met while studying at the Art Association of Montreal, is making its mark on the local art scene.
One of the most striking features of the Beaver Hall Group is the equitable balance of male and female artists. It is the women, who played a central role in the Beaver Hall Group, I want to focus on now.
Ready to meet them or, at least, view some of their incredible artwork? I’m sharing links and images from five of the artists today; watch for a follow-up email featuring the work of the remaining five tomorrow.
Nora Collyer, the youngest member of the Beaver Hall Group, was regarded for capturing the Canadian landscape, nature, and urban communities. Shown below: Floral Still Life.
Emily Coonan was an impressionist and post-impressionist artist known for her figure paintings. Shown below: Children Playing by the Water.
Prudence Heward never exhibited with the Beaver Hall Group. Yet, the artist, who is known for her scuptural technique and use of acidic colour, is closely associated with it. Shown below: The Bather.
Mabel Lockerby is known for her use of rich colour and visible brush strokes. Her work has been exhibited widely, including in an exhibition of Canadian women artists at the Riverside Museum in New York in 1947. (As a side note, Heward painted at least two portraits of Lockerby, including At the Cafe.) Shown below: Wildflowers.
Mabel May was an impressionist who painted the Eastern Townships of Quebec as well as a series of paintings showing women working in munitions factories, which was commissioned by the War Memorial Fund in 1918. Shown below: Women Making Shells.
Tomorrow, the celebration of the women in the Beaver Hall Group continues with a look at the works of Kathleen Morris, Lilias Torrance Newton, Sarah Robertson, Anne Savage, and Ethel Seath. Please join me.
Sift.
Learn more about the women of Beaver Hall.
I am ashamed to admit that I had not heard about the Beaver Hall Group until I went to see Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment at the Art Gallery of Greater Vancouver in 2022.
I quickly snapped up a book on the women of the Beaver Hall Group—a gift for my partner, an artist—in the gallery’s gift shop. If you want to learn more about these little-known artists, may I suggest:
The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian Modernist Painters (Evelyn Walters, Dundurn Press, 2005)
Shift.
Documentary shifts the narrative on art in Canada.
Do you have an hour to spare? Looking for something to watch? Check out By Woman’s Hand, a documentary on three of the women in the Beaver Hall Group from the National Film Board of Canada.
Lift.
Take action to support women artists in Canada.
The Women's Art Association of Canada is a volunteer-led, not-for-profit, charitable organization with 230 members. Its purpose is to provide public education in the arts, and to support artists and the education of students in the arts, through its scholarship program.
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I didn’t know anything about these artists. The paintings are arresting. It is so fun to have you as a guide!