A Real Amateur: The Elizabeth E Dales Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Prints

Patricia Morley is a professor of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University, an associate fellow of the Simone de Beauvoir
Institute, and author of Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

This slim catalogue documents an unusual exhibition at the Art Gallery
of Ontario, and the private passion of the collector who made it
possible.

Dales studied the history of prints at the University of Chicago and
went on to teach her specialty at the Ontario College of Art. Slowly,
with frequent visits to Paris, she built up her own collection through
the 1960s and 1970s. A true connoisseur, as Katherine Lochnan observes,
“Dales was a collector whose passion for the subject was matched by
scholarly expertise and a good eye.”

An introduction by guest curator Brenda D. Rix provides a sketch of the
history of etching in 19th-century France, and of the renewal of
interest in the art after 1860. Key lithographers included Charles
Meryon, Félix-Hilaire Buhot, and Félix Bracquemond. The lattermost
helped to introduce the art of Japanese woodblock artists to French
printmakers.

This unusual catalogue is redolent with the brooding gothic atmosphere
of 19th-century France. It includes a glossary of technical terms, and
data on each of the 44 prints shown.