Picturing Her: Images of Girlhood

Transcription

Picturing Her:
Images of Girlhood
The complete texts of the exhibition
Presented at the McCord Museum
From November 25, 2005 to March 26, 2006
Table of Content
Introduction
1. Myths and Allegories
2. Spaces and Places
2.1 Domestic Spaces
2.2 Reading at Home
2.3 Play Spaces
2.4 At School
2.5 At the Orphanage
2.6 Work Spaces
2.7 Contemporary Spaces
3. Minds and Bodies
4. Autobiographical Expressions
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Picturing Her! Images of Girlhood.
McCord Museum of Canadian History, 2005.
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Introduction
No longer children but not quite women, girls are at an in-between stage in life.
How do artists depict these special years, and how have their depictions changed
through time? The paintings, drawings, prints and photographs in this exhibition,
which portray Canadian girls from the nineteenth century to the present, reveal
how artists not only reflect ideas of what a girl is, but actively participate in
creating new visions – some restrictive, some liberating. Ongoing changes in
economic conditions, social attitudes and cultural trends influence the meaning of
girlhood and, as a consequence, representations of girls. As society invests Her
with new beliefs, desires, fantasies and expectations, both what it means to be a
girl and artistic expressions of Her experience are constantly evolving.
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1. Myths and Allegories
Ideologies have always been expressed through images of the female body. In
Canada, the idea of girls as inherently good, strong and capable of healthy growth
has been particularly appealing. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, when Canada was a young country, artists often employed the
metaphor of a girl to define the status of the new nation and its relation to Mother
England. In allegorical scenes and mythical tales, girls have personified the hopes
and struggles of nationhood. Conversely, political cartoons have used the same
symbol to satirize national attitudes and comment on current events.
The Dominion of Canada
John Henry Walker (1831-1899)
About 1867
Graphite and sepia ink on paper
Gift of David Ross McCord
McCord Museum, M930.50.6.6
The Dominion of Canada is shown as a girl wearing a tiara and holding a sceptre. She stands on
the Canadian shore, embodying the Confederation of 1867. Other girls, symbolizing the
provinces, bear gifts representing Canada’s natural resources and industries.
The Irish-born John Henry Walker came to Montreal in 1842, and by 1850 had established
himself as a painter and printmaker. His firm illustrated books, catalogues and such magazines
as the Canadian Illustrated News, the Dominion Illustrated, L’Opinion publique and Le Monde
illustré.
The Various Provinces Welcoming Princess Louise (reproduction)
Henri Julien (1852-1908)
Published in L’Opinion publique, February 12, 1880
Photolithograph
Gift of Colin McMichael
McCord Museum, M984.306.1027
The provinces, portrayed as girls, welcome Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (1848-1939), the
daughter of Queen Victoria (1819-1901). As patrons of the arts and artists, Princess Louise and
her husband John Douglas Sutherland Campbell (1845-1914), Marquess of Lorne and Governor
General of Canada, founded the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
Henri Julien, born in Quebec City, worked as an engraver and lithographer with the Desbarats
printing firm in Montreal, where he also learned drawing and painting. He was employed by the
Canadian Illustrated News, L’Opinion publique and the Dominion Illustrated, and served as art
director of the Montreal Daily Star.
Clamouring for the Fancy Doll
John Wilson Bengough (1851-1923)
Published in Grip, December 7, 1878
Photoengraving
Gift of Dr. Raymond Boyer
McCord Museum, M994X.5.273.207
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The Reform Party is depicted here as a young girl being offered a doll that resembles Prime
Minister Alexander Mackenzie (1822-1892). The girl reaches for another doll, but is told to be
content with the one she already has.
John Wilson Bengough, born in Toronto, worked as a cartoonist, editor, publisher, author,
entertainer and politician. He founded, edited and published Grip, a Toronto satirical weekly that
was a showcase for his political cartoons and commentary.
A Pertinent Question (reproduction)
Anonymous
1886
Photoengraving
Gift of Dr. Raymond Boyer
Mrs. Britannia accuses her daughter, Miss Canada, of encouraging a union with her American
cousin Jonathan. The possible annexation of Canada by the United States was a matter of
concern for both Britain and Canada in the 1880s. The cartoon refers to Canada’s aborted
attempts to renew the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States, which had doubled trade
between the two countries.
Dolce Far Niente: The Government of Quebec During Recess
Published in L’Opinion publique, January 27, 1877
Photolithograph
Miss Quebec reclines in a pose of dolce far niente - pleasant idleness – occasioned by the
government recess. The government’s leaders, pictured as little boys with butterfly wings
lounging in shells, are evidently making the best of their vacation. The pre-Raphaelite look of the
female figure and the main title have been borrowed from an 1866 painting by the British artist
William Holman Hunt (1827-1910).
Three Fairies Playing Instruments
Elizabeth A. McGillivray Knowles (1866-1928)
1909-1910
Open sketchbook
Graphite on paper
Enchanting, girl-like fairies play a harp and wind instruments. In poems and stories about fairies,
popular during the Victorian era, they were often associated with the spiritual qualities of the land
and the nation.
Ottawa-born Elizabeth A. McGillivray studied art in Toronto with F. McGillivray Knowles, whom
she later married. She was recognized for her paintings of poultry, domestic animals and farm
scenes.
Hail Dominion (reproduction)
Gustav Hahn (1866-1962)
1906
Oil on burlap
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts diploma work, deposited by the artist, Toronto, 1906
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 53
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Hail Dominion is an oil study for part of a design for a mural, Canada Receiving the Homage of
Her Children, proposed by eight artists for the entrance hall of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa.
“Canada” embraces her young provincial daughters, posed casually around her in a way that
suggests a close family. Hahn’s daughters Freya and Hilda, shown in the pastel study, posed for
this work.
Gustav Hahn, born in Reutlingen, Germany, studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule, in Stuttgart, and
in Munich and Italy before emigrating to Canada. He painted murals for private residences,
churches and the legislative building in Toronto, as well as serving as head of the department of
interior design at the Toronto Art School (now the Ontario College of Art and Design).
Study for Hail Dominion
Gustave Hahn (1866-1962)
1906
Sanguine, pastel and graphite on paper
Private collection
Baby Girl Angels
Gustave Hahn (1866-1962)
1890s
Open sketchbook
Graphite on paper
Private collection
The allegorical female figures in Hahn’s mural decorations were sometimes accompanied by
putti, symbolizing love, innocence and hope. Gustav Hahn’s baby daughter Freya was the model
for these sketches of putti.
Do it Again Daddy Please! Buy Me a Victory Bond
Joseph Ernest Sampson (1887-1946)
About 1918
Poster – black and coloured ink on paper
Gift of Barbara Bate
A girl begs her father to buy more Victory Bonds and so raise money for the war effort. She
represents innocent people affected by the war, urgently in need of protection.
Joseph Ernest Sampson, born in Liverpool, England, attended the Liverpool School of Art and the
Académie Julian in Paris before emigrating to Toronto. A portrait and landscape painter, he
worked for the Canadian War Records Office in 1918 and was president of Sampson-Matthews
Ltd., a Toronto advertising firm.
Maria Chapdelaine
by Louis Hémon (1880-1913)
Paris, Éditions Mornay, 1933 (limited edition)
Coloured wood-block illustrations by Clarence Gagnon (1881-1942)
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec – Collection des livres d’artistes et des ouvrages de bibliophilie
Maria Chapdelaine tells the story of a young woman living on a remote Quebec farm who has
three suitors – a lumberjack and trapper, a factory worker and a farmer. The artist Clarence
Gagnon stated that his purpose in illustrating Maria Chapdelaine was “to catch the spirit of
Canada and the French-Canadian way of life which the book immortalizes.”
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Louis Hémon, a writer and translator, was born in Brest, France. He came to Canada in 1911,
and was working as a farm hand in Péribonka, Quebec, when he wrote Maria Chapdelaine. In
1914, a year after Hémon was killed in a train accident, the story was published to considerable
acclaim in the Paris paper Le Temps.
Clarence Gagnon, born in Montreal, studied with William Brymner at the Art Association of
Montreal and in Paris at the Académie Julian. Gagnon is well known for his village scenes of
Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec. He was living in Paris when he illustrated Maria Chapdelaine.
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2. Spaces and Places
From the mid- to late nineteenth century, the house was the space most closely
associated with girlhood. Girls were expected to stay at home, where they were
taught how to be good wives and mothers. For the bourgeoisie, the feminine ideal
required daughters to bring honour to the family by being virtuous and versed in
literary and artistic culture. William Notman’s studio pictures of girls are idealized
representations of this cloistered world. But girls were also pictured in gardens to
symbolize their natural innocence, or in winter settings to emphasize their
Canadian identity. By the early 1900s, many girls between five and sixteen years
of age attended publicly funded schools. Large numbers of older girls from lowerclass rural and immigrant families worked as domestics or were employed in
factories and stores. Few pictures of the time depict the physical activities and
everyday occupations of girls at play, school or work, found often in the artworks
of today.
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2.1 Domestic Spaces
Philip S. Ross and Family, Montreal, 1876
William Notman (1826-1891)
Henry Sandham (1842-1910)
1876
Composite photograph – vintage print
Purchased from Associated Screen News Ltd.
McCord Museum, II-41408
The family of Philip Simpson Ross (1827-1907) and Christina Chalmers Dansken Ross relax in
their home, located at the corner of Cathcart and University Streets. In this ideal family image of
harmony and virtue, the girls are depicted seated at the piano, reading and playing quietly.
William Notman, photographer, and Henry Sandham, painter, illustrator and Notman’s partner
from 1877 until 1882, created this composite photograph together. Notman, born in Scotland,
opened a photographic studio in Montreal, and his business grew to include studios in Toronto,
Ottawa, Saint John, Halifax and the northeastern United States.
Miss Ross (posed for this composite)
1876
Photograph – contemporary print
McCord Museum, II-40916.1
Misses C. and D. Ross (posed for this composite)
1876
The Ross daughters posed separately for the composite photograph, which was created from
individual shots cut out and pasted together onto a backdrop.
The Little World of Children
Anonymous
Published in the Canadian Illustrated News, November 20, 1880
Photolithograph
Reinforcing stereotypical roles, the artist illustrates boys and girls playing and behaving differently
in their “little world.” The girl is shown to be more passive and introspective, as she cuddles a doll,
cries over a broken pot, and seeks approval and assistance from mother.
Seated Girl, Toronto
Robert Ford Gagen (1847-1926) or John Arthur Fraser (1838-1898)
About 1885
Painted photograph – vintage print, water colour
Gift of Harvey Yalonetsky
McCord Museum, N-1986.11
Unlike the more docile girls pictured typically during this era, this girl is shown relaxing on a
comfortable chair in a richly furnished room, looking confident and wilful.
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The watercolour painting, applied onto the photographic film, was executed by the photographer
– either Robert Ford Gagen or John Arthur Fraser. Fraser, born in London, England, studied at
the Royal Academy Schools. Gagen, also from London, studied with G. Gilbert of Toronto, and
worked for Fraser at Notman’s studio.
Miss Alice Graham and Her Mother Annie Beckman Atholstan (Hamilton)
William Notman & Son
1899
Photograph – vintage print
Gift of Mrs. E. G. Finley
McCord Museum, N-1975.12.6
Alice Graham, age seven, is posed in a dress whose style dates back to the 1830s, while
her mother wears a contemporary evening dress.
The formal photograph suggests the ideal of ”hearth and home” and recalls the mother’s role in
ensuring her daughter’s moral, spiritual, intellectual and social training in accordance with the
Victorian ideal of femininity.
Mrs. Archie MacFarlane and Daughters Sheila and Charlotte, Montreal
About 1925
Painted photograph – vintage print, watercolour on card
Gift of Mrs. Archie MacFarlane
Sheila and Charlotte MacFarlane are posed in identical dresses –a practice dating back to the
nineteenth century. The display of affection and the smiles on the girls’ faces are new
developments in the formal family portrait.
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2.2 Reading at Home
Family Life (reproduction)
1850-1885
Wood engraving
This scene illustrates the behaviour expected of a girl. She is shown as obedient and studious,
intent on pleasing the mother who tutors her – unlike her less compliant brother, with his
unopened book.
She Followed the Right Path (reproduction)
1850-1885
Wood engraving
This print shows Saint Anne instructing her daughter, the Virgin Mary – supreme model for all
Catholic girls. Mary “follows the right path”: bible in one hand, she reaches with the other towards
the thorny bush, representing sacrifice and the rewards of heaven, in preference to the rose,
symbolizing facility and earthly pleasure.
The Mother’s Picture Alphabet
by Henry Anelay (1817-1883)
London, S. W. Partridge, about 1860
Engravings by James Johnston
Dedicated By Her Majesty’s Permission to H.R.H. The Princess Beatrice
Given to Mary Martha Phillips by her mother and father on the occasion of her sixth birthday, St.
Andrews, March 8, 1862
This ABC picture book was designed especially for mothers wishing to teach their daughters to
read. The objects chosen by the artist to represent the letters of the alphabet all belong to the
world of girls. For example, D for Doll, H for Hen, I for Infant, P for Play and Q for Queen.
Henry Anelay was a British illustrator and watercolour landscape artist.
Two Girls from the Atwater Family, Montreal
A. B. Taber (active in Montreal 1859-1865)
About 1860
Photograph – vintage print
Gift of Mrs. William R. Dean
McCord Museum, MP-1977.9.17
The older girl holding a prayer book is portrayed as the guide and protector of her younger sister.
The two girls’ rigid posture suggests piety and an upbringing ruled by a strict moral code.
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Misses Jane and Bessy Allan, Daughters of Andrew Allan, Shipowner and Merchant, and
Isabella Ann Smith
1861
McCord Museum, I-80.1
Misses Hortense and Joséphine Cartier, Daughters of Sir George-Étienne Cartier, Principal
Lieutenant of Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald, and Marguerite Paradis
1865
Miss Louise Jacobi, Daughter of Otto Reinhold Jacobi, Artist, and Sybille Reuter
1867
Miss Emily Mary Notman, Photographed by Her Father William Notman
1868
Mrs. Smith’s Children
1869
Miss H. E. Roberts’ Group
1869-1870
William Notman’s studio portraits of upper-middle-class girls reading echo a subject that recurred
frequently in nineteenth-century painting: a female reader in a bourgeois setting. By the 1860s,
reading was considered important for a girl’s education: “Turn her loose into the old library, every
wet day, and let her alone. She will find what is good for her ... Let her loose in the library, I say,
as you do a fawn in a field.” (John Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies, 1865).
Girl and Boy
Alice Webster (active late nineteenth century)
About 1900
Graphite on paper
Gift of Colonel J. Ralph Harper
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In this delicate portrait drawing of the heads of a girl and boy, the girl’s look of concentration as
she reads contrasts with the distracted air of the younger boy.
Alice Webster lived in Kentville, Nova Scotia. In 1886 she exhibited a watercolour drawing at the
Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London, England.
Fairy Tales
Mary Bell Eastlake (1864-1951)
About 1916
Oil on canvas
Gift of Vera M. Bell, Almonte, Ontario, 1934, in loving memory of her husband James Mackintosh
Bell, Ph.D., LL.D, F.R.S., O.B.E.
Girls were often depicted together in a dreamy mood, as in this picture of an older girl reading a
fairy tale, her arm gently wrapped around her young sister. Mary Bell Eastlake’s paintings of girls
were often compared to those of the American artist Mary Cassatt (1884-1926).
Mary Bell Eastlake, born in Douglas, Ontario, studied in Montreal with Robert Harris and in Paris
at the Julian and Colarossi academies. In 1892, before her marriage to English landscape painter
Charles Eastlake, she taught at the Victoria School of Art.
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2.3 Play Spaces
Portrait of Princess Victoria
Augustin Edouart (1789-1861)
About 1820
Silhouette – ink on paper
McCord Museum, M2388
This silhouette portrait of Princess Victoria holding a doll displays the typical pose of a girl at play.
Augustin Edouart frequently used this silhouette pattern, altering the facial features to portray girls
of various British and American families.
French-born Augustin Edouart was an itinerant artist known to have executed silhouettes for
patrons in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.
Girl with Birds and Animals
1850-1885
Wood engraving
McCord Museum, M991X.5.483
It is easy to imagine that the girl in the inset image is drawing a picture or writing a story about
feeding rabbits, which were a common pet for girls. The illustration probably accompanied a girl’s
story in a book or magazine.
Miss M. Kirkpatrick, Montreal
1863
The pose of Miss M. Kirkpatrick, who is shown with a skipping rope, suggests that Notman was
familiar with Dutch Renaissance portraits of children holding toys. Skipping, originally a sport of
jump tricks for boys, evolved into a girl’s game of rhymes and rope play when families migrated to
the city, where girls could skip on the paved sidewalks.
Mrs. Kerry’s Children, Montreal
1890
Upper-class girls were encouraged to imitate their mothers’ behaviour and the elegant rituals that
defined domestic and social life. Here, the sisters are posed together and the brother somewhat
apart, grouped around a child’s tea set in a composed setting that recalls paintings of bourgeois
women at leisure.
Child’s Tea Set
Early 20th century
Ceramic
Gift of Mrs. William Van Horne
McCord Museum, M970.23.60.1-21
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Miss Alice Graham Wearing a Fancy Dress Costume
1907
Painted photograph – vintage print, mixed media
Older girls from wealthy families attended fancy dress balls, an important social venue for
courting. Fifteen-year-old Alice Graham is dressed as “Mary” of the well-known nursery rhyme:
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells,
And pretty maids all in a row.
Appropriately, her costume includes a rake and a watering can. “Silver bells and cockleshells” line
the edges of her bolero and sleeves, while “pretty maids all in a row” can be seen on the hem of
her skirt.
Gustav Hahn’s Daughters in Costumes Made by Mrs. Hahn, Toronto
About 1905
Family snapshots (contemporary prints)
Private collection
Play-acting was a girl’s favourite pastime. The daughters of the artist Gustav Hahn are dressed
as a fairy, a lady and a country girl. The costumes were made by their mother, Ellen Hahn, for
plays the girls performed for the family.
Miss Sheila MacFarlane, Montreal
1898
Painted photograph – vintage print, oil paint on cardboard
In this painted photograph, little Sheila MacFarlane is shown sitting on a sleigh against a snowy
landscape. In the original photograph she is seated on a set of steps. Though encouraged to be
prim and proper in their play, girls as well as boys enjoyed the winter sport of sledding, a typically
Canadian pastime.
Miss Sheila MacFarlane, Montreal
1898
Photograph (contemporary print)
Games at the Victoria Skating Rink, Montreal - Race Between Young Girls
Anonymous
Published in the Canadian Illustrated News, March 23, 1872
Photolithograph
Gift of Charles deVolpi
The Canadian Illustrated News described the event pictured here as follows: “The attraction of
the evening was without a doubt the Girl’s Race, which brought out several rosy-cheeked little
maidens, of whom it was soon perceived Miss Charlotte Fairbairn apparently about ten years old
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was the queen, though another little lady, Miss Bethune, did exceedingly well.” At the time,
skating was considered a good female sport because it did not “strain” the girl’s body.
Young Girl on a Swing
James MacDonald Barnsley (1861-1929)
1889
Watercolour and graphite on paper
Bequest of Thomas Greenshields Henderson
In this strangely disquieting scene, a girl sits alone on a swing hanging from a tree in a meadow
clearing. The mood of Barnsley’s image differs from pictures on the theme by French Rococo
painters, who often portrayed a girl swinging in the company of a suitor.
James MacDonald Barnsley, born in Dundas, Ontario, studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts
and in Paris. His career ended in 1892, when he was admitted to Montreal’s Verdun Protestant
Hospital for the mentally ill.
Miss Frances Wiltshire Linton Cooper, Montreal
Henry Sandham (1842-1810)
1875
Painted photograph – vintage print, watercolour
Gift of William H. Gear
Eight-year-old Frances Wiltshire Linton Cooper, wearing a broderie anglaise dress, sits in a
garden setting, surrounded by a veritable Eden of ferns, grass and wild flowers. Girls were often
depicted playing in garden settings, to suggest natural beauty and innocence.
Two Girls Playing Croquet
Anonymous, copied by William Notman & Son in 1909
While croquet was viewed as an appropriate sport for girls, other sports requiring more physical
exertion – such as bicycle riding – were considered unladylike and bad for the reproductive
system.
Posthumous Portrait of Sarah Diana de Tessier Percy Porteous (1889-1900)
William Brymner (1855-1925)
1901
Oil on canvas
Gift of Sarah Humphrey
Diana Porteous’s childhood was cut rudely short when she died at age eleven of appendicitis.
William Brymner has painted the child in ethereal tones that merge into the green hues of an
eternal garden. She holds a pink flower – a ladies’ slipper – symbolizing the ephemerality of
beauty and life.
William Brymner, born in Greenock, Scotland, grew up in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. After
studying in Paris at the Académie Julian, he served as director and teacher at the Art Association
of Montreal.
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2.4 At School
Return from School or The Daughters of Canada
Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith (1846-1923)
1884
Oil on canvas
Presented to the City of London by Mrs. Annie W.G. Cooper in loving memory of her husband,
Albert Edward Cooper, 1940
Museum London, 40.A.04
Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith was the drawing master at Union Grammar School (now the site of
Alexandra Public School) on King Street in London, Ontario, when he painted Return from
School, using several of his female students as models. The painting contrasts the wellmannered behaviour of the girls (with one exception) and the disruptive conduct of the boys
throwing snowballs in the background.
Born in London, England, Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith received training from his artist father and at
the South Kensington School of Art. He painted photographs at Notman’s firm and made
illustrations for the Canadian Illustrated News before studying in Paris.
Congregation of Notre-Dame, Montreal
Henry Richard S. Bunnett (1845-1910)
1885-1890
Oil on board
McCord Museum, M647
This painting depicts the Congregation of Notre-Dame’s Mother House and Villa Maria, a Catholic
boarding school for girls. The nuns residing in convents and teaching in their schools played a
significant role in the care and education of girls.
Henry Richard Bunnett, born in England, lived in Montreal between 1885 and 1889. He painted
rural views and historical buildings in the region, many commissioned by David Ross McCord.
Quebec’s School Law in Operation
About 1872-1908
Pen and black ink over graphite on paper
Gift of Marius Barbeau, Ottawa, 1938
A little girl marches stoically up the steps to school. Compulsory schooling, slow to take effect in
Quebec, was controversial, especially for girls, who were often needed at home to help with
domestic chores.
Normal School for Girls, Notre-Dame-de-Pitié
Georges Delfosse (1869-1939)
1908
Oil on canvas
Purchased 1967
Georges Delfosse painted this view of Notre-Dame-de-Pitié, a Catholic normal school for girls,
from his studio and home on Sherbrooke Street, located directly opposite. Many new schools
were built in the early twentieth century.
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Georges Delfosse, born in Saint-Henri-de-Mascouche, Quebec, studied with Joseph Chabert and
William Brymner in Montreal, and with Léon Bonnat and Alexis Harlamoff in Paris.
Interior of a Classroom
Anonymous
1929
McCord Museum, II-292807.0.2
This photograph of a Montreal classroom offers a glimpse of the strict formal education typical of
this period. The curriculum for girls emphasized domestic accomplishments and often excluded
the sciences.
First Communicants
Emily Coonan (1885-1971)
About 1912
Oil on canvas
Gift of Elizabeth Fisher
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1955.1111
Catholic children generally receive the sacrament of Holy Communion for the first time at the age
of seven. The young girls in Emily Coonan’s painting possess a nervous energy reminiscent of
Degas’s ballet dancers waiting in the wings.
Montreal-born Emily Coonan studied at the Conseil des arts et manufactures and with William
Brymner at the Art Association of Montreal. In 1912 she travelled to Europe on an art scholarship.
Group of Girls, Sault-au-Récollet Convent
Anonymous
1866
The Sault-au-Récollet Convent school in Montreal took day and boarding students from the
region.
Miss M. Vertongen, Montreal
1869
The almost bridal costume worn for First Communion symbolizes the girl’s dedication to a life of
virtue.
Miss F. St. Louis, in Her Communion Dress, Montreal
1891
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Children's Garden: Young Lady Gardeners
Pegi Nicol MacLeod (1904-1949)
1924-1949
Watercolour on paper
Vincent Massey Bequest, 1968
In this watercolour, the girls tending the garden seem themselves like an array of delicately tinted
blooms. The pedagogical idea of a "children’s garden," or kindergarten, was introduced by the
German educator Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), who recognized the uniqueness of all children.
They are, he said, “like tiny flowers; they are varied and need care, but each is beautiful alone
and glorious when seen in the community of peers.” Pegi Nicol MacLeod was known for her
paintings of groups of children and for portraits of her daughter, depicted at different stages of her
development.
Pegi Nicol MacLeod, was born in Listowel, Ontario. She studied with Franklin Brownell in Ottawa
and at the École des beaux-arts in Montreal.
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2.5 At the Orphanage
Incidents of the Week – “Safe in the Arms of Jesus.” Miss Rye’s Orphans at the
Immigration Shed, Montreal (reproduction)
Anonymous
Published in the Canadian Illustrated News, June 28, 1879
Photolithograph
Maria Susan Rye (1829-1903), a social reformer from London, England, brought about three
thousand girls from London slums and workhouses to work as domestic servants in Canadian
households. With funding from church agencies and philanthropists, over a hundred thousand
destitute “home children” were sent from England to Canada between 1869 and the early 1930s.
Miss Rye’s Home for Emigrant Female Children, at Niagara, Lake Ontario (reproduction)
Anonymous
Published in the Illustrated London News, September 29, 1877
Wood engraving
From the outside, Miss Rye’s “home” appears pleasant and orderly, belying the crowded interior
conditions and cruel treatment of the girls.
Miss Rye and Her Protegées
Anonymous
Published in the Canadian Illustrated News, October 7, 1871
Photolithograph
Miss Rye’s girls line up alongside the home’s male patrons. The Canadian Illustrated News article
debates whether Miss Rye’s campaign is a success or a failure, speculating as to how many girls
remain “respectable” during training and after entering domestic service.
The Orphan
Jean Paul Lemieux (1904-1990)
1956
Oil on canvas
Purchased 1957
The anonymity of Jean Paul Lemieux’s orphan girl, pictured in a Quebec rural landscape, is
countered by the individual qualities of her face: the tiny mouth, the upturned nose and the
sparkle in her eyes.
Jean Paul Lemieux, born in Quebec City, studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal and in
1929 took classes at the Académie Colarossi, in Paris. He taught for many years at the École des
beaux-arts in Quebec City.
Orphanage and Nuns’ Residence, Montfort
Anonymous
1905-1914
Collotype
Gift of Stanley G. Triggs
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The Montfort orphanage was attached to the convent of Notre-Dame-de-Montfort, located in the
Laurentians. Canadian orphanages, supported by churches and benevolent institutions, cared for
the offspring of unwed mothers and the children of impoverished families, as well as orphans.
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2.6 Work Spaces
Catalogue Illustration of a Washing Machine (reproduction)
1860-1885
Wood engraving
Here, a girl wields the crank of a manual washing machine invented in the 1860s. During the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, working-class girls began helping around the house at
the age of six, and by fourteen undertook many of the household tasks.
Girl Washing Dishes on a Farm, St. Eustache, Quebec
Regina Seiden Goldberg (1897-1991)
About 1923
Oil on panel
Gift of the artist, 1975
This painting of a girl performing a monotonous task in front of a window suggests a longing to
escape – if only in her imagination.
Regina Seiden Goldberg, born in Rigaud, Quebec, studied at the Art Association of Montreal with
William Brymner and in Paris at the Académie Julian.
Two Girls in a Kitchen
About 1865
Contrasting sharply with the upper- and middle-class girls in Notman’s studio portraits, these two
figures posed in a kitchen are either domestics or daughters helping out with the chores.
H. P. Labelle & Cie. Office Interior, Montreal
Anonymous
1920
Girls from the age of fifteen up began entering the workforce in unprecedented numbers after
World War One. An office environment was generally preferred to factory, domestic, or retail
employment. In this image, two girls work at side desks, while the men sit in a more spacious
area, indicating their higher status.
Girl’s Own Annual
Edited by Flora Klickmann
London, England, about 1911-1912 and about 1927-1928
McCord Museum, C117/D.02-03
The Girl’s Own Annual was a collection of the weekly (and later monthly) issues of Girl’s Own
Paper, renamed Girl’s Own Paper and Woman’s Magazine in 1908. The illustrated magazine,
aimed at older girls, documents the dramatic social changes that were transforming the girl’s
sheltered life at home into the urban existence of a working girl. The early issues contained
22
articles on Queen Victoria’s girlhood, historical costumes, and tips on cooking and needlework.
Over time, however, the annual began to include items on careers, missionary work and the
conduct of the single girl.
23
2.7 Contemporary Spaces
A Fatal Friendship (from the Enfants Terribles series)
Susan G. Scott (born 1949)
2003-2004
Oil, acrylic and pumice on canvas
Collection of the artist
Susan G. Scott’s paintings of girls explore the mental and physical spaces of young female
relationships. As one girl helps the other with the back of her dress, we seem to be witnessing the
intimacy of close friendship. However, this impression of trust is undermined by the work’s title.
Montreal-born Susan G. Scott studied at the Pratt Institute and the New York Studio School of
Drawing and Painting in New York City. She teaches at Concordia University.
Projections for the Unseeing
Yvonne Singer (born 1944)
2005
Installation (detail) – video still
In contrast to the docile girls depicted during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this
sister is engaged in a tug-of-war with her brother over her doll, all the while continuing to smile for
the camera. The children’s cheerful faces belie the undercurrent of tension in the situation. These
photographs, excerpted from Yvonne Singer’s home movies, freeze a poignant moment in a
familiar family drama of sibling rivalry.
Yvonne Singer, born in Budapest, Hungary, immigrated to Canada as a child. She studied at the
Ontario College of Art, and has an MFA from York University, where she now teaches and directs
the Graduate Program in Visual Arts.
Marcelle-Mallet School, Lévis (from the School Pictures series, 1993-1998)
Clara Gutsche (born 1949)
1998
Chromogenic colour print
This is not a formal school picture: artist Clara Gutsche has invoked the help of the four girls in
staging the photograph. One girl sits at the desk playing teacher, while the other three stand at
the chalk board creating imaginary problems.
Institut Reine-Marie, Montreal (from the School Pictures series, 1993-1998)
Clara Gutsche (born 1949)
1997
Here, girls pose for a rehearsal of the ballet Giselle. Clara Gutsche’s staged, large-format
photographs lend her subjects an impact reminiscent of nineteenth-century historical painting.
Clara Gutsche, born in St. Louis, Missouri, has an MFA in photography from Concordia University
in Montreal. She teaches at Champlain College and Concordia University.
24
La poupée qui vouvoie
Eve K. Tremblay (born 1972)
2001
In a claustrophobic space filled with dolls, a girl and a doll wear eye patches that symbolize both
unanimity and the inability to act independently. A seated girl holding a doll, hardly discernible in
the crowd, stares out at the viewer, who feels compelled to stare back, thus becoming party to the
action.
Eve K. Tremblay studied French literature at the Université de Montréal, theatre in New York City
and photography at Concordia University.
Parkdale Sack Race
Allison Freeman (born 1981)
2005
Oil on canvas
This painting imbues a snapshot of a lighthearted game with an ominous double entendre. The
girls are either rapt with excitement or trying to escape an unseen calamity. The variegated pink
sky and shadow-play undermine realistic space, infusing the image with a menacing ambiguity.
Allison Freeman studied liberal arts and studio arts/art history at Concordia University.
25
3. Minds and Bodies
The sentimental, soulful portraits of girls painted in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries were superseded in the 1940s by portraits revealing the mental
and emotional states of their subjects. This interest in a girl’s psychological and
physical self-awareness – her metamorphosis from child to adult – reflected a new
understanding of the adolescent girl. The idea of the Canadian girl expanded to
include a wider range of urban and rural girls, as well as girls of different ethnic
backgrounds and social classes. Today, the forces of popular culture and the
media occasionally present girls as powerful, sexually liberated and untroubled by
adult life, but more often they are infantilized and stereotyped by narrow
definitions of beauty and body type. Female artists have responded to the media’s
exploitation of girlhood in artworks that explore a plethora of images about young
femininity, from girls who are vulnerable and at risk to girls who radiate potential,
self-esteem and promise for the future.
Young Girl with a Bouquet
Paul Peel (1860-1892)
1870-1880
Oil on canvas
Gift of Louis Laflamme, Jean-Paul Soucy and François Lamoureux
The freshly plucked bouquet and the girl’s amiable face suggest innocence, but the curves of her
body hint at her blossoming womanhood. Girls picking or holding flowers was a popular subject
among such nineteenth-century painters as Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) and William
Bouguereau (1825-1905).
Paul Peel, born in London, Ontario, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, in
England and in France, where he lived from 1881.
Gathering Wild Strawberries
William Brymner (1855-1925)
Before 1885
Oil on canvas
Gift of Sydney Dawes
McCord Museum, M22205
An older girl kneels with gathered strawberries on her lap, while a child in the distance looks for
more. Brymner often depicted girls in a landscape, thus associating nature with youth, fertility and
femininity.
Portrait of a Child (Mrs. Margaret Campbell Brown Gillespie)
Laura Muntz Lyall (1860-1930)
1912
Oil on canvas
Gift of Margaret Gillespie
In a painting reminiscent of Renoir’s sweet portrayals of young children, the eight-year-old
Margaret, fashionably dressed for winter, has a cherubic, doll-like face.
26
Laura Muntz Lyall, born in Radford, Warwickshire, England, settled in the Muskoka region of
Ontario. She studied at the South Kensington School of Art in England and the Académie
Colarossi in Paris.
Portrait of Child – Painting by Laura Muntz
1913
McCord Museum, VIEW-13014
Laura Muntz Lyall’s Portrait of a Child was photographed by William Notman and reproduced in
Canadian Magazine in 1913. Pictures of girls of all ages were featured frequently on the covers of
Canadian magazines from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century.
Young Girl
Jori Smith (born 1907)
1940
Oil on canvas
Purchased 1978
A little girl sits, her gaze averted, looking forlorn and a bit sullen. The artist has made an effort to
show how a real girl feels and thinks.
Montreal-born Jori Smith studied at the Art Association of Montreal and the École des beaux-arts.
Head of a Girl (Lucille Vaughan)
Orson Wheeler (1902-1990)
1946
Bronze
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts diploma work, deposited by the artist, Montreal, 1956
This bust is one of very few representations of a black girl made during the period. Lucille Cuevas
(née Vaughan) recalls that Orson Wheeler asked her to sit for the portrait when he was an art
teacher at Sir George Williams College.
Orson Wheeler, originally from Barnston in the Eastern Townships, studied at the Conseil des
arts et manufactures in Montreal, and at the Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design
in New York City.
Little Girl of Saint-Dominique Street, Montreal
Louis Muhlstock (1904-2001)
About 1931-1932
Charcoal, pastel and crayon on paper
Louis Muhlstock Estate
This tired-looking girl from a depressed neighbourhood of Montreal is one of a number of poor
and immigrant girls depicted by Muhlstock during the Depression.
Louis Muhlstock, born in Poland, came to Montreal with his family. He studied at the Conseil des
arts et manufactures, the Art Association of Montreal and in Paris.
27
Indian Child
Prudence Heward (1896-1947)
1936
Oil on canvas
This painting’s vibrant colours and bold contours contribute to the intensity of the Aboriginal girl’s
expression. Prudence Heward’s depictions of girls evoke the feminine ideal of an individual with a
strong sense of self – a pictorial model that reflected her own character and independence.
Prudence Heward, born in Montreal, studied at the Art Association of Montreal with William
Brymner and Maurice Cullen, and at the Académie Colarossi in Paris.
In the Shadow of the Tree
Helen Galloway McNicoll (1879-1915)
About 1914
Oil on canvas
Purchased 1951
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City, 51.140
“A young woman sits beside an infant in a perambulator under the shade of an umbrella. As she
reads, she creates her own mental space apart from the child, with whom she nevertheless
maintains physical contact. The hand that links the two is painted somewhat differently than the
rest of the canvas, signalling its central role both psychologically and compositionally.” (Kristina
Huneault, art historian, Concordia University)
Miss Prudence Heward, Montreal
1898
McCord Museum, II-125117
The artist Prudence Heward, shown here at two years old, grew up in an affluent family, the sixth
of eight children. She was privately educated, and her early interest in art was encouraged by her
mother and her sister Dorothy.
Birthday Girl (from the Alpha Girls series)
Angela Grossmann (born 1955)
2005
Oil and ink on paper
Birthday Girl embodies the dualities of innocence and knowingness, individuality and conformity.
The subject’s unkempt hair is at odds with her party dress, and the sensitive portrayal of her face
conflicts with the disintegration of her hands and dress.
Angela Grossmann, born in London, England, has an MFA from Concordia University in
Montreal. She teaches at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver.
Killing Me Softly
Natalka Husar (born 1951)
2004
Oil on board
28
Killing Me Softly is a follow-up to the artist’s Blond With Dark Roots series, paintings of fictitious
post-Soviet immigrant girls growing up in new political, social and economic surroundings. As her
half-bald head hints, this girl has been displaced from Chernobyl. The horseshoe-shaped handle
of her handbag seems to symbolize her old-country hopes for success in a brazen new world, but
those hopes are subtly undermined by her oddly mismatched garments: flowing summer polkadots and itchy winter mohair.
Natalka Husar was born in New Jersey of Ukrainian heritage. She has a BFA from Rutgers
University, and teaches at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto.
Helga & Muskox
Katie Dutton (born 1981)
2005
Oil on board, thread on fabric
This diptych parodies Victorian images of young girls cuddling much-loved pets. It portrays an
unlikely pair – a young girl and a powerful muskox. Are they friends or foes, is the animal a pet or
dinner? Will it leap through the hoop like an old-time show dog or lumber off to find better grazing
grounds?
Katie Dutton, born in Kingston, Ontario, has a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal and
lives in Ottawa.
Women Carry Culture (from the Studies in the Mother Line series)
Ann Beam (born 1944)
2002
Photographic emulsion, watercolour and graphite on paper
This double portrait is part of an ongoing series entitled Studies in the Mother Line, begun in
2000. The photograph shows Ann Beam and her thirteen-year-old daughter Anong (who later
became an artist) at White Fish Lake, Ontario, in the height of summer. A strong energy unites
mother and daughter, transmitted in part by the fireweed, wild tiger lilies and Solomon’s seal they
are holding. The canopy that frames the two figures, the drawings of power animals in the upper
left, and the three stars at a celestial reference point on the right side emphasize the sacred
quality of this life-giving exchange.
Ann Beam has a BFA from State University of New York, Buffalo. She lives and works in
M’chigeeng, Manitoulin Island, northeastern Ontario.
Two Girls Eating
Peter Pitseolak (1902-1973)
1975
Coloured lithograph
Two girls eat, each holding an ulu – a woman’s knife – in their right hand. Pitseolak turns an
everyday subject into an iconic image that captures the poetic quality of a girl’s pose and gesture.
Peter Pitseolak, an Inuit from Baffin Island, Cape Dorset, produced a large body of photographs,
carvings, drawings and prints depicting traditional Inuit life.
29
Meditation
Josette Trépanier (born 1946)
2004
Photographic transfer on copper plate, etching, aquatint, drypoint and Chine collé
In creating this series of prints, Josette Trépanier photographed a dancer whom she had asked to
adopt the poses of a teenage girl observing her own body in a sauna. The original idea was to
illustrate the anxiety inspired in today’s young girls by the slightest physical imperfection.
Ultimately, however, the sequence of gestures, accomplished in calmness and serenity by the
model, seems like a kind of ritual, a contemplative exercise quite devoid of irony.
Montrealer Josette Trépanier is a painter, printmaker and playwright. Since 1994 she has been
teaching in the fine arts department of the Université du Québec at Trois-Rivières. In 2003, under
UQAM’s art studies and practices doctoral program, she completed a Ph.D. dissertation on the
subject of twentieth-century art practices derived from everyday life.
30
4. Autobiographical Expressions
At different times in Canadian history, girls have expressed themselves through
such media as sketchbooks, diaries and albums. These documents give personal
voice and imagery to the experience of growing up female and to the challenge of
making meaning out of it. They provide direct access to the secret aspects of a
girl’s social life, her private rituals, opinions and emotions, and how she deals
with the contradictions, conflicts and consequences of moving from girlhood to
the life of an adult.
Sampler
Elizabeth Irving (active mid-nineteenth century)
1860
Silks on canvas
Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth Irving’s sampler, invested with personal experiences, shows a house
with a dog, and an urn containing a plant, which may signify a death. During the nineteenth
century and earlier a girl usually completed her first sampler at age six, as part of her education in
sewing.
Flowers
Mary Frary (active early nineteenth century)
About 1813
Open sketchbook
Graphite, ink and watercolour on paper
Gift of M. Gould
McCord Museum, M925.1.1.13-14
Mary Frary, who began this sketchbook of Canadian wild flowers when she was a young girl, was
evidently interested in the art of flower painting, taught to young girls and women in the early
nineteenth century.
Cupid
Sophie Amélie Bruneau (active mid-nineteenth century)
About 1860
Open scrapbook
Graphite and watercolour on paper
Gift of Mr. Lightbound
Sophie Amélie Bruneau filled this scrapbook with watercolour paintings, drawings, photographs,
prints, valentine cards, poems and keepsakes. In her drawing of a putto flying over Montreal, she
displays a keen sense of humour about the whimsical nature of love.
The text under the picture reads as follows:
Cupid, armed with the bells of madness and borne on the wings of a butterfly, glides
high above the world. Obligingly, he stops over North America and scatters a few
flowers on Montreal.
31
Two Girls
Mary L. Frothingham (active late nineteenth century)
1873
Open sketchbook
Gift of Dorothy E. Benson
Mary Frothingham created this sketchbook when she was a young girl on vacation at the family’s
summer home, Monte Shanti, in Cacouna, eastern Quebec. Mary has painted two girls sitting in
the forest, wearing identical dresses and hats. The figure with the sketchbook propped on her lap
is probably a self-portrait, while the other is Mary’s sister Harriett.
Summer Home
Mary L. Frothingham (active late nineteenth century)
1875
Open sketchbook
Here, Mary has depicted her summer home, with its white picket fence, and the farmworkers
bringing in the harvest.
Frothingham Family Album
William Notman (1826-1891) and anonymous photographers
About 1869
Stamped leather, fibre, board
McCord Museum, N-1986.5.1.1-48
This exquisitely bound album contains photographs and cartes de visite – small photographs
mounted on card – of the Frothingham family and their acquaintances. The Frothingham family
lived in Piedmont House, on Montreal’s Durocher Street.
Miss Mary (May) Louisa Frothingham, Montreal
1869-1870
Diary
Henriette Dessaulles (1860-1946)
1874-1877
Ink on paper
McCord Museum, P010-B/3-2
Henriette Dessaulles lived in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, where she wrote her four surviving diaries
over a period of several years. Annmarie Adams (architectural historian, McGill University) and
Peter Gossage (historian, Université de Sherbrooke) have studied Henriette’s “struggles for
control over private space” after her mother’s death and her father’s remarriage, when the girl’s
“principal refuge” was her new bedroom on the third floor.
32
Henriette writes about her stepmother’s intrusion into her room: “A depressing interruption! Mama
hardly ever sets foot in my room – once a year at most – but she has just done so to deliver a
speech which can be quickly summarized. Angrily she left my room, with the words, ‘Don’t you
dare defy me!’”
Henriette Dessaulles’s diaries have been published in French and in English translation. She
raised five children and worked as a journalist under different pseudonyms (including “Fadette”)
for La Patrie, Le Journal de Françoise, Le Nationaliste, L’Action française and Le Devoir.
Prayer Book Belonging to Henriette Dessaulles
1874
Ink on paper, ivory and silk
Gift of Suzanne Morin Raymond, Henriette Dessaulles’s granddaughter
Rosary Belonging to Henriette Dessaulles
1875-1900
Silver, mother-of-pearl, ivory
Gift of Suzanne Morin Raymond, Henriette Dessaulles’s granddaughter
Photograph Album
Margery Paterson (1921-1998)
About 1929-1939
Cardboard, vintage photographs
“This album was compiled by a young Montrealer,Margery Paterson, who became ill with
tuberculosis after graduating from high school. The album spotlights the conditions of girlhood
and adolescence from the perspective of a young woman exiled by her illness, and
photographically reliving the freedom and promise of her younger years.” (Martha Langford, art
historian, Concordia University)
The Anne Savage Collection of Student Works
Girl Reading
Anonymous
About 1920
Charcoal and gouache on paper
Concordia University Archives,Anne Savage Fonds, P146-05-5.1
Dancing Girls
Anonymous
About 1920
Gouache on paper
Concordia University Archives,Anne Savage Fonds, P146-05.8.16
“Anne Savage, an early exponent of creative art teaching, encouraged her students at Baron
Byng High School in Montreal (who were mainly female) to make pictures about themselves that
provided an aesthetic connection to recent Canadian art.” (Leah Sherman, art educator,
Concordia University)
Anne Savage, born in Montreal, studied with William Brymner and Maurice Cullen at the Art
Association of Montreal and at the Minneapolis School of Art.
33
Anne Savage at Her Desk, Baron Byng High School, Montreal
Anonymous
About 1935
Concordia University Archives, Anne Savage Fonds, P146-06-01.17
Burnings, Straight from Hell or the Art of Survival - series
Katja Kessin aka MacLeod (born 1959)
2005
Burnt wood, acrylic and varnish
Scared Rabbit
Mummy (Piggy-back)
Becoming Transparent
River
Safe Place (Little Portable Doll)
Bridge
Giddy-up
Floating
Monkeys on my Back
Taking the form of a visual diary, Katja Kessin’s wood burnings are projections of visual
memories that surface day by day. They represent the artist’s latest attempt to use her painting
practice to gain glimpses of forgotten memories, employing a basic Freudian approach to create
imagery derived from her early childhood.
Katja Kessin, born in Hamburg, Germany, now lives in Canada. She is a graduate of Concordia’s
MFA and Ph.D. Humanities programs. Her doctoral dissertation “To Lend the Dead a Voice”
(2003) – both a series of solo exhibitions and a written thesis – provided the inspiration for
several artistic investigations of the unconscious.
34

Picturing Her: Images of Girlhood

Transcription

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