PROVENANCE
Dominion Gallery, Montreal
Peter Ohler Fine Arts Ltd., Vancouver
Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Evelyn Walters, The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian Modernist Painters, 2005, page 91

Lilias Torrance Newton was a member of Montreal’s short-lived Beaver Hall Group and, like other members, came from a prominent family in that city. Witty and sophisticated, it is said that Newton married on condition that she could spend time in Paris studying. She was a professional portrait painter and, through her social connections, had wealthy clients—she painted Canada’s elite, such as members of the Massey and Southam families. Her accomplished portraits are in museum collections, such as Lady in Black at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Gallery of Canada collection includes her paintings of its director Eric Brown and of artists Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson and Edwin Holgate. She was so well known that Evelyn Walters wrote, “For thirty years Torrance Newton dominated Canadian portraiture. Success brought her the financial freedom to travel and a luxury penthouse with a thirty-foot studio and a view of Mount Royal.” Portrait of a Young Woman, with its natural depiction of this lovely, self-assured young woman set against a warm, rich colour-field background, is a particularly fine example of Newton’s portraiture.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars