PRICE: $1,250

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, British Columbia

Ina D.D. Uhthoff (née Campbell) was originally from Scotland, and attended the Glasgow School of Art, receiving training from Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Maurice Grieffenhagen. She came to Canada in 1913, where she met her husband, fellow Glaswegian Ted Uhthoff. He was enlisted to serve in the War and the couple returned to Scotland before moving back to Canada in 1923 with two small children, settling in the Kootenays. Ted soon began to suffer from PTSD and Ina was forced to become the breadwinner for the family. She established herself as an art teacher in Victoria and moved there in 1925 with the children following later.

In Victoria Uhthoff quickly became central to the art community, and only a year after her arrival in 1926 established the Victoria School of Art at 620 View Street. She formed a relationship with another Glasgow School of Art transplant Charles H. Scott and his newly formed Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts. And while never a student or faculty member of the Vancouver school, she formed a relationship with Scott which enabled students to transfer credits between the two institutions. In 1928 Uhthoff partnered with Emily Carr to bring Seattle mystical painter Mark Tobey to Victoria who offered classes at both her and Emily’s studios.

Along with four other artists, in 1944 Uhthoff opened “The Little Centre”, a small gallery on Yates Street. This gallery then moved to Broughton Street and was renamed the Art Centre of Greater Victoria. In 1951 the gallery moved to Spencer Mansion on Moss Street, which eventually became the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria as it is known today.

Over the next couple of decades until her passing in 1971 Uhthoff remained actively involved in the gallery as an exhibiting artist and fundraiser on the board of directors. She continued to teach and write art criticism columns for the Victoria Daily Colonist. In 1972 the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria honoured Ina’s legacy and contributions to the city with a posthumous memorial exhibition of her work.

Though this work is not dated, the social realism style and subject of the canvas is similar to other works held in the collection of the AGGV from the 1930s and 40s. There is an undated conte study for this painting in the collection of the AGGV.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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