The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian Modernist Painters

Kathy E. Zimon is a fine arts librarian (emerita) at the University of
Calgary. She is the author of Alberta Society of Artists: The First 70
Years and co-editor of Art Documentation Bulletin of the Art Libraries
Society of North America.

The Beaver Hall Group, founded in 1920 with A.Y. Jackson as president,
is considered to be the Quebec equivalent of the Group of Seven, founded
in the same year. Named after the address of their studio in Montreal,
the group’s first exhibition included 11 men and 8 women. Formally,
the group lasted only about two years and had only four exhibitions, but
its women members in particular continued their beneficial association,
and the recognition and reputation of their modernist work has grown
over the years.

The author’s focus is on 10 of Beaver Hall’s most prominent women
members, most of whom remained lifelong friends: Nora Collyer, Emily
Coonan, Prudence Heward, Mabel Lockerby, Henrietta Mabel May, Kathleen
Morris, Lilias Torrance Newton, Sarah Robertson, Anne Savage, and Ethel
Seath. All were born before the turn of the 20th century, and except for
two, most had long careers—three of them lived to be over 90. All
began their art studies at the Art Association of Montreal with William
Brymner, Maurice Cullen, or Alberta Cleland, and several of them
travelled and studied in Europe. A brief history of the group introduces
succinct chapters about each artist, and 148 excellent colour
reproductions of their work are featured. Indeed, the paintings speak
for themselves, and readers can assess the author’s commentary in
light of the evidence provided. Colour, light, and technique were their
preoccupations in paintings that encompass landscapes, townscapes,
figures, portraits, and still life. Both their subject matter and style
are far more varied than those of the Group of Seven, reflecting their
training and the more “old world” ambience of their native province.

A third of the book is devoted to scholarly appendixes: a chronology
and list of exhibitions for each artist; notes; a bibliography; an index
of illustrations, with full captions, arranged by artist; and an index.
This title is lavishly produced, on heavy, glossy paper with large print
and ample margins. It does full justice to the quality of the work of
the women of Beaver Hall.