Emily Carr, Tom Thomson and A.Y. Jackson are likely the first who come to mind when casual art lovers are asked to name famous Canadian artists.
The Helson Gallery, and many others, want to add one more to that list: Florence McGillivray.
The gallery in the Halton Hills Cultural Centre debuted the exhibit Florence McGillivray: Her Story and Influences on Canadian Art late last month. Until May 6, visitors will get to see her paintings.
In her time, McGillivray earned great acclaim among her peers. Group of Seven member and close friend Tom Thomson even said she was “one of the best.” But despite this, few would likely know to name her as a prolific Canadian artist.
“Here is this woman who is a skilled painter, who was an activist, a woman ahead of her time. Why is it that in today’s world we don’t consider these?” said researcher and author Bill Allen, who recently published his third book about the artist.
“Young women today can see how these women back then were trying to break the glass ceiling and be discovered.”
Patriarchy did not stop her, however. McGillivray quietly honed her craft through over 1,000 works, some of which Allen contributed to the Helson's exhibit.
The Town says Allen is responsible for bringing together the extensive collection of art on loan from private and public collections.
McGillivray experimented with painting on china, some sketch work and portraiture. But she's most known for her landscapes and post-impressionist style she borrowed from European artists.
Many of her works from when she was in Europe and the Caribbean are on display at the Helson. Venetian fishing boats, a street in Killarney, Ireland and a series of Trinidadian houses are among the many waiting to be admired.
She may very well have influenced Tom Thomson's work, who was also a post-impressionist. But recognition went to him and not her.
“At the time, women weren't allowed into a lot of the art societies that were established in Toronto,” Helson Gallery curator Kara Bruce said. “We have this collection that we promote to the town and it’s lacking certain representation for me. That’s why I wanted to promote Florence McGillivray.”
When the Ontario Society of Artists was formed in 1872, no women were part of the group. Esther Westmacott was their first female member, who joined in 1874. The first woman to be invited to the group was Mary Heister Reid in 1887.
Charlotte Schrieber was a founding member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCAA). She was the first woman to be elected as an academician of the RCAA in 1880. It would take 50 years for the second woman, Marion Long, to be elected to that position.
But McGillivray still carved out a space for herself. She was an early member of the Women’s Art Association of Canada (WAAC). Emily Carr traces her origins as an artist to the WAAC. In 1917, she was made president of the WAAC’s chapter in Ottawa.
In his, book Florence McGillivray: The Forgotten Matriarch of Canadian Modernism, Allen pulls no punches against the Canada of the day, saying women “were fed up” with playing second fiddle to men.
“In the canon of Canadian art history in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was clear that men were the purveyors of all that was meaningful in the art world, or at least they thought so,” Allen writes in his book.
“Art criticism and decisions related to government funding of the arts came from the smoke-filled rooms of pompous bureaucrats - men who felt they had a God-given right to dominate women,” he stated further. “It seems [women artists] decided that if they couldn’t count on participating with men, they would develop their own institutions.”
Allen will be giving a talk about his muse on April 11 at 6 p.m. in the Helson Gallery. He will discuss some of his research and take questions from the audience.
The Helson Gallery is located at 9 Church St., Georgetown and is open Wednesday to Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.
More information about the art show and other exhibitions can be found on HaltonHills.ca.
