First Hand: 1. Introduction

First Hand

1. Introduction

They studied and practised. They travelled far and wide, seeking like minds. They passed on their knowledge. Some married and some divorced. Some didn't. Some raised children and some nursed dying partners and parents. They made love and money and endless meals. And, through it all, they made art.

The 20th-century history of the visual arts on PEI is full of women making art, teaching art, and building organizations in support of art, despite firm gender restrictions. For most of the century, marriage and motherhood were society's expectations of women, and enormous pressure was placed on women to fulfill those roles. While art as a hobby was seen as a respectable pastime for early 20th-century women, art as a career was not. If, by extraordinary circumstances, a young woman had her father's financial and moral support to pursue a formal arts education, the doors were closed to her full participation. Women were prohibited from drawing from the nude, an essential part of classical arts training. If their self-confidence survived the sexism of their male college or university teachers and they became practising artists, they found themselves blocked from full membership in professional organizations. For instance, the rules of the Royal Canadian Academy stipulated that "women shall be eligible for membership in the Royal Canadian Academy but shall not be required to attend business meetings, nor will their names be placed upon the list of rotation for council" (see Farr and Luckyj). Thus, women could only be elected to the lesser rank of associate with the resultant loss of power, administrative voice, and money, commissions being most often awarded to full members.

However, Island women did become professional artists. Focussing on the work, life, and times of eleven women artists born in the first half of the 20th century, this history shows, both figuratively and culturally, the influence the Island landscape had on them, and how, in turn, they influenced the evolution of Island art.

During the 19th century, formally educated, predominately English-born immigrants of the middle and upper classes brought their western tradition of landscape and portrait painting to Prince Edward Island. (The centuries-old Mi'kmaq cultural traditions had no apparent influence on the art of these newcomers).The first art school in PEI was established in Charlottetown in 1829 by George Thresher. Portraitist Robert Harris (1849-1919), perhaps the best known of all Island artists, received national attention for his 1884 painting Fathers of Confederation. Fanny Bayfield (1814-1891), trained in her native England, settled on the Island in 1841. Like many women of her day, she became quite skilled in botanical illustration. An album of her watercolours, Canadian Wild Flowers is held in the National Public Archives. She also taught women's art classes, beginning a practice common on the Island of women teaching women art, that stretched right through the century.

In 1907, Pablo Picasso, inspired by native African art, painted "Demoiselles d'Avignon," marking the birth of modern art. The tradition of Western illusionistic art was forever altered.

A veritable explosion of scientific and technological discoveries ushered in the new century. The telegraph was invented, airplanes were making their first successful flights, Albert Einstein was formulating his theory of relativity, and Sigmund Freud had just published The Interpretation of Dreams. There was a questioning of all traditional values and beliefs, including the role and rights of women. It was in this climate that PEI's first professional women artists emerged.