In 1925, the Art Association of Montreal held a memorial exhibition celebrating the life and work of Canadian painter Helen McNicoll. Featuring over 120 pieces, this major exhibition showcased the full breadth of her artistic practice. Now, a century later, the Art Gallery of Hamilton proudly presents Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey—the most comprehensive solo exhibition of her work since 1925.
Helen McNicoll is one of Canada’s most significant historical artists. As an early adopter of Impressionism, she carved an individual and avant-garde path in both Canada and abroad, making a name for herself on the world stage. McNicoll’s art was widely celebrated during her lifetime. Critics praised the masterful treatment of light in her paintings, and the immersive nature of her subjects. Despite her brief career, McNicoll greatly increased the recognition of Québec and Canadian art on both sides of the Atlantic.
Representing modernity through her Impressionist style and timeless subjects, McNicoll’s paintings invite us to journey alongside the artist. This exhibition explores the outer worlds the artist recreated in pencil and paint throughout her life, as well as the inner worlds she navigated. Examining themes of female independence and fulfillment, personal and professional risk-taking, and friendship, Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey gives us a glimpse of the world as Helen McNicoll saw it.
One painting in particular is garnering well-deserved attention at the exhibition: McNicoll’s The Bean Harvest – a work that was lost for more than 100 years before being rediscovered and featured on the BBC’s Fake or Fortune? television program, where the painting’s authenticity was confirmed. This is the first time The Bean Harvest has been exhibited in Canada since 1913.
This exhibition is unique in that nearly half of the works included are drawn from the Pierre Lassonde Private Collection. These works have not been widely showcased until this exhibition, originally created and organized by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and now presented and adapted by the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
An exhibition created and organized by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and adapted by the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
IMAGE CREDIT: Helen McNicoll, The Apple Gatherer (detail), c. 1911, oil on canvas. Gift of G. C. Mutch, Esq., in memory of his mother, Annie Elizabeth Mutch, 1957 © Art Gallery of Hamilton. Photo: Robert McNair, 2014.
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