Sold for: $34,250

PROVENANCE
Gerard Gorce Fine Arts Inc., Montreal
Kastel Gallery, Montreal
Private Collection, Montreal
Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 25, 2010, lot 110
Private Collection, Toronto

EXHIBITED
Women's Committee, Picture Fund Exhibition, catalogue #99
Sir George Williams Art Galleries, Concordia University, Montreal, Women Painters of the Beaver Hall Group, October 6 - 30, 1982
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, Kathleen Morris, 1893 - 1986, Retrospective Exhibition, September 13 - 27, 2003, catalogue #50

In 1920, Kathleen Morris was part of Montreal’s Beaver Hall Group, and she remained associated with the resulting network of women artists long after they left the studio. At a time when women were struggling to assert their professional status, this group of women, with their impressive lists of exhibitions and acquisitions by museums, was groundbreaking. From 1922 to 1929 Morris lived in Ottawa; she then returned to Montreal, living near St. Joseph’s Oratory in a neighbourhood she often painted. Well known for her fine urban scenes of Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa,

Morris painted subjects such as marketplaces, downtown streets and cabstands that exude joie de vivre. Craig Street, Montreal (the street was later renamed rue Sainte-Antoine) has tremendous vitality. The scene is compressed, dense with buildings around which stream the streets, which act as arteries of movement for cars, people and a streetcar. Morris emphasizes repeated patterns of squares - first in the windows, then in the rooftops covered in snow - which bring space into the density. Craig Street, Montreal, with its lush brush-strokes, strong colouration and lofty bird’s-eye view, is compelling in its visual richness.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars