Emanuel Hahn and Elizabeth Wyn Wood: Tradition and Innovation in Canadian Sculpture

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Part biography and part art history, this exhibition catalogue
illuminates the lives and work

of two important Canadian sculptors. Emanuel Hahn (1881–1957) and
Elizabeth Wyn Wood (1903–1966) lived and worked side by side for more
than three decades. They met at art school (Hahn was Wyn Wood’s
teacher), became lovers, and eventually married. Their long and close
relationship was a source of inspiration to both sculptors.

In her introduction, Baker, who is the National Gallery’s assistant
curator for Canadian art, charts the development of Canadian sculpture
beginning in the late 19th century. Sculptors such as Hahn, Walter
Allward, Frances Loring, and Florence Wyle were inspired by European art
academies as well as by an idealized nature and monumental art forms.
Their work developed in Canada alongside the older traditions
represented by Quebec woodcarvers and by Native artists, especially
those on the West Coast.

This impressive portrait of two sculptors who experienced the double
pull of tradition and innovation is generously illustrated with
black-and-white photographs.