The Women of Beaver Hall (2 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 introduced you to five of the 10 women associated with the Beaver Hall Group, all of whom were influenced by celebrated modernist painter William Brymner.
Today, I want to highlight the other five.
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.
Kathleen Morris was singled out by W.G. Constable as an outstanding example of second-generation impressionism at an exhibition of the Beaver Hall Group at the 1937 Royal Institute Galleries in London. Shown below: McGill Cab Stand.
Lilias Torrance Newton was a portrait painter known for her vigorous compositions and fresh colour. She painted many notable subjects. You can see her portraits of renowned Group of Seven painters A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris, Edwin Holgate, and Arthur Lismer at the National Gallery. Her official portraits of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip hang in Rideau Hall. Shown below: Self-portrait.
Of Sarah Robertson, Arthur Lismer wrote: "Her landscapes are living examples that nature is a source and not a standard, and she has the courage to create landscapes, and not copy them literally." Shown below: Sleighs in Winter.
Anne Savage was heavily influenced by the Group of Seven at the start of her career. Over time, she developed a more lyrical quality that relied on muted colours and, eventually, abstraction. Shown below: Country Scene.
Ethel Seath was a printmaker, commercial artist, and art instructor at the all-girls private school, The Study, in Montreal. But, she is best known for her still life and landscape paintings. Shown below: The White Barn, Eastern Townships.
Sift.
Learn more about the women of Beaver Hall.
Yesterday, I told you about a gorgeous book by Evelyn Walters: The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian Modernist Painters (Dundurn Press, 2005)
If you are looking for a quick read, try:
“Portrait of the Beaver Hall Group emerges at MMFA exhibition” (Wayne Larsen, Montreal Gazette, updated July 15, 2020)
Shift.
Documentary shifts the narrative on art in Canada.
Yesterday, I shared a link to watch an incredible documentary called By Woman’s Hand.
If you are looking for something to listen to while walking the dog or cleaning the house, check out this CBC radio documentary by Alisa Siegel.
“The Beaver Hall Group” (CBC Sunday Edition, February 2016)
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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