Lot 150: Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil

Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil on canvas Girl with Parasol 16 x 18 inches 40.6 x 45.7 centimeters signed and on verso inscribed in graphite ""Helen McNicoll"" Literature:Carol Lowrey, Visions of Light and Air, Canadian Impressionism, 1885 - 1920, Americas Society Art Gallery, 1995, pages 15 - 16 Natalie Luckjy, Helen McNicoll: A Canadian Impressionist, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1999, page 53 Provenance:Private Collection, England Helen McNicoll is universally regarded as a pivotal figure in Canadian art, and an artist who was able to fully absorb the Impressionist aesthetic - both formally and thematically - as evidenced in Girl with Parasol. Highly esteemed in her lifetime for her achievements at home and abroad, McNicoll's premature death at the young age of 35, and her small artistic output, has deprived history of her full pictorial promise. Born into a family of wealth and prestige, and imbued with the vision to paint, McNicoll first studied at Montreal's Art Association. With the encouragement of her teacher William Brymner, she enrolled in 1902 at the Slade School of Art in London. Following her initial studies in the city, she proceeded to St. Ives, Cornwall, in 1906, where she studied under Algernon Talmage. It was there that she was so inspired by the teaching of Talmage that her passion for plein air painting was ignited. It was also in St. Ives that she met her great friend and fellow painter, Dorothea Sharp. Her time in London served her well, and she was described "as a true cosmopolite, choosing to remain in Europe, while retaining intermittent contact with the Canadian art world through visits and exhibition activity." McNicoll's reputation increased when her works were published in London's Studio magazine. With her election in 1913 to the Royal Society of British Arts (RBA) her presence in the London art scene was confirmed. Luckyj explains that six of her works were displayed at the RBA's 1913 exhibition, ranging in price from 15 to 36 pounds; while the Montreal Daily Star noted: "Considering there have been only eight elections this year, it is particularly gratifying to Canadians that Miss McNicoll should be one of those chosen and that the maximum number of three of her paintings are hung in the exhibition of the Suffolk Street galleries." McNicoll's significance derives not only from her accomplishment as a painter of women and children, subjects that were previously dismissed as pure genre, but also from her adherence to the Impressionist aesthetic itself. As Carol Lowry explains, "Impressionism constituted the first stage of modernism in Canada, serving as a vital link between nineteenth century academicism and the work of the nationalist landscape painters known as the Group of Seven." Girl with Parasol contains all the key tenets of Impressionism - soft tones and soothing colour, changing qualities of light and a sense of atmosphere applied to an anecdotal theme. The brush-strokes display fluency and confidence, as one can sense the wind moving through the grass, yet this sense of movement is juxtaposed to the serenity of the sitter. This particular model was a favourite of McNicoll's and the motif of the parasol was often used in her oeuvre. Girl with Parasol recalls works such as In the Shadow of the Tree, circa 1914, in the collection of the Musée du Québec, as well as A Quiet Spot and Sunny September, both from 1913 and in private collections. It can be surmised that Girl with Parasol also dates from 1913, as it shares similar subject matter to that seen in A Quiet Spot and Sunny September. This work is of significance in the limited body of work by one of Canada's most important female Impressionists.