Ontario College of Art (1925-1927); Art Students' League, Toronto (1928); Scandinavian Academy, Paris (1929)
Awards
CM (1997); OOnt (1993)
Isabel McLaughlin, CMOOnt (10 October 1903 - 26 November 2002) was a Modernist Canadian painter, patron and philanthropist. She specialized in landscapes and still life and had a strong interest in design.[1]
Born in Oshawa, Ontario, McLaughlin was the third of five daughters to Adelaide Mowbray McLaughlin and founder of the McLaughlin Motor Car Company and first president of General Motors Canada, Col. Robert Samuel McLaughlin. She studied watercolour painting with Louise Saint in Paris while learning French at the Sorbonne in Paris (1921–1924).[2]
From 1925 to 1927, she studied art at the Ontario College of Art with Group of Seven member Arthur Lismer and Yvonne McKague Housser, the latter of whom she referred to as "remarkable".[3]:12 She then attended the Art Students' League, as it was called, a school started by Lismer's students on the grounds of the College of Art with, as mentors, Lismer and Housser.[4]Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Bertram Brooker, Lowrie Warrener, Frances Loring and Florence Wyle, came and besides advice, expressed enthusiasm.[5] In 1929, she studied in Paris at the Scandinavian Academy with Prudence Heward, with whom she formed a lifelong friendship,[6] then in Vienna with Housser in 1930. (Her artistic pursuits are described in the 1994 NFB film on the Beaver Hall group, "By Woman's Hand").[7]
McLaughlin was recognized as a dedicated artist from early in her career.[6] As Fred Housser wrote in 1929, McLaughlin was "one of the boldest young women painters we have...Her compositions are intensely modern in feeling...characterized by...real power", together with originality of expression...."[8] She was an invited participant in the Group of Seven exhibition in 1931.[9] Her first solo show was at the Art Gallery of Toronto in 1933.[10] Her early work is described as having a sculptural simplicity of style.[2] She exhibited at Scott & Sons, Montreal with Sarah Robertson, and Heward (1934); at Malloney Galleries, Toronto, with Rody Kenny Courtice, Kathleen Daly, Housser and Paraskeva Clark (1936); and the Picture Loan Society, Toronto (1937).[10] Besides Heward, she formed a strong friendship with Housser and the two often went on painting excursions together and exhibited their work at Canadian Group of Painters shows, of which both were founding members in 1933.
Tree by McLaughlin, now in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, was lampooned in the Toronto Telegram following its exhibition in a 1936 Canadian Group of Painters show. In 1940, she showed in a four-person exhibition at the Art Gallery of Toronto with Courtice, Bobs Coghill Haworth, and Housser (this exhibition was re-examined in 1998 as a show curated by Alicia Boutilier with a catalogue by the Art Gallery of Carleton University in Ottawa titled 4 Women Who Painted in the 1930s and 1940s). In the summers of 1938 and 1939, she studied Dynamic Symmetry with Emile Bistram in Taos, New Mexico.[2] During the summers from 1947 to 1952, McLaughlin studied with Hans Hofmann accompanied by Alexandra Luke with whom she also was a close friend.[1][11]
In the spring 2022 sale of auction Cowley Abbott, McLaughlin's Backyards, lot 74, oil on canvas, 25 x 26 ins ( 63.5 x 66 cms ), estimated at $15,000.00 - $20,000.00, realized a price of $40,800.00.[18]
Before her death, she gave her archives to Queen's University.[21][22] Following her death, McLaughlin's remaining collection of art work was donated to the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Isabel McLaughlin (1903–2002): Painter, Patron, Philanthropist was held at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, Ontario, in 2007, to celebrate the gift to the archives at Queen's University at Kingston.
McLaughlin lived to be 99, passing away in 2002.
Legacy
In 1948, Housser painted a watercolour depicting McLaughlin titled Isabel the Archaeologist, Cap Chat River.[3]:69 McLaughlin also was the subject of an authorized portrait relief sculpture by Florence Wyle.[23] A mid-life portrait photograph was authorized by Reva Brooks in the 1950s.
In 1998, McLaughlin was one of the four artists in 4 Women Who Painted in the 1930s and 1940s, curated by Alicia Boutilier for the Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa.[2] In 2013, her role in supporting the Canadian Group of Painters was discussed in A Vital Force: Canadian Group of Painters curated by Boutilier for the Agnes Etherington Art Centre.[24] In 2016, the Art Gallery of Guelph included her work in the exhibition Dear Life, which traced the ways in which women have shaped the course of art across the 20th, and now the 21st, centuries.[14]
Related Research Articles
The Beaver Hall Group refers to a Montreal-based group of Canadian painters who met in the late 1910s while studying art at a school run by the Art Association of Montreal. The Group is notable for its equal inclusion of men and women artists, as well as for its embrace of Jazz Age modernism. They painted a variety of subjects, including portraits, landscapes, urban scenes and still lifes, in a mix of Modernist and traditional styles.
Prudence Heward was a Canadian figure painter, known for using acidic colour, a sculptural treatment, and giving an intense brooding quality to her subjects. She was a charter member of the Canadian Group of Painters, the Contemporary Arts Society and the Federation of Canadian Artists. Although she did not show her work with the Beaver Hall Group, she was allied with many of its artists in her aesthetic aims and through friendships.
The Canadian Group of Painters (CGP) was a collective of 28 painters from across Canada who came together as a group in 1933. Its Archives is in Queen's University, Kingston.
Pegi Nicol MacLeod,, was a Canadian painter whose modernist self-portraits, figure studies, paintings of children, still lifes and landscapes are characterized by a fluidity of form and vibrant colour. Born Margaret Kathleen Nichol, she was a teacher, war artist and arts activist. In 1936 she became a member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour and one year later she joined the Canadian Group of Painters.
Yvonne McKague Housser, (1897–1996) was a Modernist Canadian painter, and a teacher.
Bobs Cogill Haworth (1900–1988) was a South African-born Canadian painter and potter. She practiced mainly in Toronto, living and working with her husband, painter and teacher Peter Haworth. She was a member of the Canadian Group of Painters with Yvonne McKague Housser, Isabel McLaughlin and members of the Group of Seven.
Alexandra Luke, born Margaret Alexandra Luke in Montreal, Quebec, was a Canadian abstract artist who belonged to the Painters Eleven.
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Tobi Bruce has been the Director of Exhibitions and Collections and Senior Curator at the Art Gallery of Hamilton since 2015. She is a Canadian art historian who places curatorial collaboration at the centre of her practice.
Alicia Boutilier is the Chief Curator and Curator of Canadian Historical Art at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston. She has been Curator of Canadian Historical Art since 2008 and was appointed Chief Curator in 2017. In 2020, she served as the Interim Director at the gallery and received a special recognition award from Queen's University at Kingston for her work as a team leader, adapting to the new realities caused by Covid. She is a Canadian art historian with wide-ranging concerns with emphasis on women artists, artistic groups, regional scenes and collecting histories.
1 2 Ferrari, Prudence. "Prudence Heward: Painting at Home." (2001). In Framing Our Past: Canadian Women's History in the Twentieth Century, S.A. Cook, L.R. McLean, and K. O'Rourke, eds. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 131.
1 2 3 A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada
↑ "Isabel McLaughlin". www.gallery.ca. National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
↑ McLaughlin, Isabel. "Collection". rmg.minisisinc.com. Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa. Archived from the original on 27 November 2021. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
1 2 "Collection". artgalleryofguelph.ca. Art Gallery of Guelph. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
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