Henrietta Shore was an early modernist in Canada and occupies a distinctive place in early twentieth-century North American art. Born in Toronto, she spent most of her life in the United States, immigrating in 1913 and becoming an American citizen in 1920. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Shore did not pursue extended training in the studios of European masters but studied in Canada with Impressionist Laura Muntz Lyall, at the Art Students League of New York alongside fellow student Georgia O’Keeffe, and later in London at the Heatherley School of Fine Art. Renowned for her lush palette, elegant line and reduced forms, Shore brought a refined sensibility to her semi-abstract portrayals of the landscape.

Painted circa 1918, Children and Nannies by the Sea reflects Shore’s representational style at a moment of stylistic transition. Living in California after the First World War, she often painted everyday activity along the seashore, as with this scene depicting seven figures gathered on a luminous stretch of beach. Children play in the foreground, while the elongated forms of the women stand still and abstracted, their individual identities obscured.

The atmospheric light of the Pacific bathes the scene, rendered in a soft palette of lilac, rose and pale gold, while lyrical brushstrokes sweep across the iridescent sands and sloping hills. Shore’s work from this period sought meaning in the intimate scenes of life, imbuing the quiet moments of the everyday with vitality. This painting encapsulates the meditative quality of Shore’s compositions, balancing representation with the distilled, symbolic forms that would later inform her move towards abstraction.