Foreword
Jean-Luc Murray
Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey
Anne-Marie Bouchard
A Life in Paint
Samantha Burton
McNicoll En Plein Air
Julie Nash
In the Studio: A Closer Look
Caroline Shields and Valerie Moscato Works
Préface
Jean-Luc Murray
Helen McNicoll. Un voyage impressionniste
Anne-Marie Bouchard
Une vie en peinture
Samantha Burton
McNicoll en plein air
Julie Nash
Lumière sur l’atelier
Caroline Shields et Valerie Moscato
Œuvres
Biographies
Liste
Liste
La mobilité joue un rôle de premier plan dans la vie moderne occidentale depuis le milieu du xixe siècle. Les nombreuses possibilités de déplacement, corollaire d’une démocratisation de l’accès aux transports, font de la mobilité un vecteur d’autonomie et d’indépendance, même si elle demeure un privilège. Propices à la mobilité de nombreuses artistes canadiennes, les transports transatlantiques ont été l’objet de plusieurs études fouillées. Comme le souligne Samantha Burton :
Grâce à leur mobilité, des femmes comme Carr, Forbes, Eastlake, McNicoll et Jones n’ont pas seulement passé outre la frontière séparant la maison de l’étranger, elles ont incarné le lien maintenant les deux en tension. Il est à présent bien connu que les voyages transatlantiques se sont multipliés dans les décennies précédant la Première Guerre mondiale. L’avènement du voyage par train et par bateau à vapeur, ainsi que la croissance d’une classe moyenne possédant un niveau inédit de revenus disponibles pour son loisir ont eu pour conséquence que, plus que jamais, des hommes et des femmes d’Amérique du Nord traversaient l’Atlantique pour le travail, pour s’éduquer, pour le plaisir 1 .
Pour Helen McNicoll, les possibilités de mobilité géographique semblent ne jamais avoir été restreintes par les ressources financières. Mais encore, en tant que fille du vice-président de la compagnie de chemin de fer du Canadien Pacifique, elle a aisément eu accès à des traversées sur l’un ou l’autre des paquebots de la compagnie 2 . Le départ de McNicoll pour la Grande-Bretagne représente en quelque sorte un retour aux sources, ses parents étant nés là-bas3 . Sans nier que cette filiation soit un facteur
1 Samantha Burton, Canadian Girls in London: Negotiating Home and Away in the British World at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Thèse de doctorat, Montréal, Université McGill, 2012, p. 38.
2 Julie Nash, « Paper Trail: Navigating McNicoll’s Sketchbooks », dans Caroline Shields (dir.), Cassatt-McNicoll. Impressionists between Worlds, Toronto/ Fredericton, AGO/Goose Lane Editions, 2023, p. 130.
3 Kristina Huneault, « Impressions of Difference: The Painted Canvases of Helen McNicoll », Art History, vol. 27, no 2 (avril 2004), p. 212-249.
Mobility has played a leading role in modern Western life since the mid19th century. The numerous opportunities that exist for travel—a corollary to the democratization of access to transportation—make mobility a vehicle for autonomy and independence, even if it remains a privilege. Transatlantic travel, which offered the potential for the mobility of numerous Canadian artists, has been the subject of several in-depth studies. As Samantha Burton points out:
Through their mobility, women like Carr, Forbes, Eastlake, McNicoll, and Jones not only transgressed the boundary between home and away, but acted as links that held the two in tension. It is now a well-told story that transatlantic travel increased by leaps and bounds in the decades prior to World War I. The advent of rail and steamship travel, together with the growth of a middle-class in possession of a new level of disposable income to enjoy it, meant that more North American men and women were crossing the Atlantic for work, education, and pleasure than ever before.1
For Helen McNicoll, opportunities for geographic mobility never seem to have been restricted by a lack of financial resources. As the daughter of the vice president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, she had easy access to crossings on any number of the company’s steamships. 2 McNicoll’s departure for Great Britain represents a return to her roots, as her parents were born there.3 Without denying that this lineage may have assisted, it should be mentioned that mobility from the Canadian colony to the British Empire did not pose the same challenges as moving in the opposite direction. Indeed, while Scots immigrating to Canada made up a
1 Samantha Burton, “Canadian Girls in London: Negotiating Home and Away in the British World at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”, (PhD diss., McGill University, 2012), 38.
2 Julie Nash, “Paper Trail: Navigating McNicoll’s Sketchbooks” in Cassatt–McNicoll: Impressionists Between Worlds, ed. Caroline Shields (Toronto/ Fredericton: AGO/Goose Lane Editions, 2023), 130.
3 Kristina Huneault, “Impressions of Difference: The Painted Canvases of Helen McNicoll,” Art History, 27, no. 2 (April 2004): 212–249.
How does one trace the life of an artist who left almost no clues? Helen McNicoll was a groundbreaking painter known for her transatlantic mobility, who pushed boundaries as an independent, professional woman and played an important role in connecting the art worlds of North America and Europe. But there are only a few letters documenting her short life and career as well as a handful of photographs—no personal diaries, journals, or anything else of the sort. And yet, as the MNBAQ’s retrospective exhibition Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey reveals, the luminously painted canvases created by the artist speak for themselves. Quintessentially modern in subject and style, McNicoll’s paintings reveal a life shaped by extensive travel and a never-ending pursuit of artistic growth.
Travel shaped Helen McNicoll’s art from the very beginning. She was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1879 to parents who immigrated to Canada from the United Kingdom. Her father, David McNicoll, was a railway man who ascended the ranks at the Canadian Pacific Railway, eventually becoming its vice president. The family relocated to Montreal when the artist was young, joining the city’s elite Anglophone social set. Helen was the eldest of eight children; letters and sketches show that the family was close and travelled abroad often to visit extended relations in Britain. While transatlantic travel was not uncommon for Canadians of a certain class, McNicoll’s connections to the transportation industry enabled a level of frequency and comfort unavailable to most at this time.
The artist’s family wealth and social standing facilitated her pursuit of an artistic career by allowing her to paint without worrying about financial support. It also gave her a social entrée into Montreal’s most prominent
Esquisse pour Place du marché / Sketch for Marketplace 1910
