Lot 255: Kathleen Moir Morris 1893 - 1986 Canadian oil on

Kathleen Moir Morris 1893 - 1986 Canadian oil on canvas Summer Country House "20 x 24 inches 50.8 x 61 centimeters signed Literature:Evelyn Walters, The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian Modernist Painters, 2005, page 73 Provenance:Mr. and Mrs. David Taylor, Montreal By descent to the present Private Estate, BC Each summer, the Morris family spent two months at their small cottage near Marshall's Bay, Ontario. As in the winter months, Kathleen Morris spent much of her time sketching and painting out of doors, and the fields, farm animals and country homes provided the inspirational sustenance required to fuel her creative needs. As Morris was physically disabled by a nervous system disorder, her mother enrolled her in piano lessons as a very young girl to improve her coordination. Once able to hold a paintbrush, however, Morris abandoned music and immersed herself in recording her beloved Canadian surroundings with a relentless fervour. One is overwhelmed by the unrestrained joie de vivre communicated in this canvas. Morris's fearless play of colour and bold contrast between light and shadow produces a composition that vibrates with the vivid lushness of the season. It was her unconcealable pleasure, expressed in dramatic works such as Summer Country House, that attracted the attention of Eric Brown, director of the National Gallery of Canada, who secured a number of her most important paintings for the gallery's collection. "