1902 - 1981
Canadian
Illumination: Day Dream
gold and oil paint on vellum
titled and on verso titled on the exhibition label
8 1/2 x 3 1/2 in, 21.6 x 8.9 cm
Estimate: $800 - $1,200 CAD
Sold for: $500
Preview at:
PROVENANCE
Collection Of Beatrice Lennie
by descent to the present Private Collection, Vancouver Island
EXHIBITED
Vancouver Art Gallery, Pioneer Students of Vancouver Art School Club Exhibition, September 17 - 30, 1932
Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 55th Annual Exhibition, 1934
Margaret Adelaide Williams was a part of the first graduating class of the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (VSDAA) in 1929. She took a particular interest in illuminated paintings, which were included in the design course taught by Grace Wilson Melvin. Melvin came to Vancouver by way of Glasgow, where she was trained in the Art Nouveau style of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. She was hired by Charles H. Scott, who, like her, was originally from Scotland.
Following in the tradition of illuminated manuscripts, an art form traditionally used to adorn religious texts, Williams, who also wrote poetry, combined her two disciplines in this work.
When Frederick Varley and Jock Macdonald split off from the VSDAA to set up the British Columbia College of Arts in 1933, Williams was hired as the head of the design department. She went on to show regularly with the Vancouver Art Gallery and the B.C. Society of Fine Arts throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
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