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50 KATHLEEN MOIR MORRIS, A.R.C.A. HORSE DRAWN CARRIAGES, WINTER oil on canvas signed 21.5 ins x 18 ins; 54.6 cms x 45.7 cms Provenance: Private Collection, Ontario (aquired as a gift directly from the artist circa 1963) Private Collection, Ontario (by descent) $80,000–120,000
Note: Kathleen Moir Morris was primarily a painter of winter scenes. Born into Montreal’s Anglophone establishment, she studied at the Art Association of Montreal with William Brymner and Maurice Cullen around 1906, sketching outdoors with Cullen and Robert Pilot until 1917. That she worked en plein air in the middle of winter was remarkable considering that she suffered from a congenital condition which impaired her speech and coordination throughout her life. It was at the Art Association that she met Sarah Robertson, Anne Savage, Mabel May and Lilias Torrance Newton who would join together with other artists in 1920 to form the Beaver Hall Group. Morris would be affiliated with the group. Although the group lasted only a short time officially, the women members continued to exhibit together and support each other’s creative endeavours long after the group disbanded in 1922. Their work included landscapes of Quebec, but unlike the wilderness versions painted by the Group of Seven, their landscapes often contained a human presence. This lot is typical of Morris’s subject matter which included urban streets, picturesque Quebec towns, the Laurentians, and the market in Ottawa where she lived from 1923 to 29. In Ottawa she was encouraged by Eric Brown, director of the National Gallery of Canada, who bought one of her pictures for the collection in 1924. Morris’s work captured the culture of everyday life in rural Quebec and later, in the streets of Montreal where she returned to live in 1929. Morris’s post-impressionist style shows the influence of J.W. Morrice (particularly his Quebec scenes) whose work she admired. This canvas is unusual in her oeuvre in that the entire upper half of the canvas is given over to a skillful rendering of the distant landscape. The vertiginous viewpoint may be the result of Morris painting from an upper storey window. She was praised by critics for her use of colour; here, the brightly coloured buildings enliven the composition which is otherwise restricted to various tones of blue and white. In the past, Morris and her work have received less attention than many of her contemporaries; however, she is well represented in The Beaver Hall Group: 1920s Modernism in Montreal, an exhibition held at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts from October 24, 2015 to January 31, 2016 and continuing to other venues.
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