Mabel May

Henrietta Mabel May (September 11, 1877 – October 8, 1971) was a Canadian artist in the early 20th century, an organizer of two significant groups of Canadian artists, and someone who extended collegiality to women within those groups. Based in Quebec early in her career, she worked as a teacher associated with the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario for a decade, returned to Quebec, and ended her career in Vancouver, British Columbia. A well-known painter, she worked with or organized groups including the Art Association of Montreal, the Beaver Hall Group and the Canadian Group of Painters. Her works are in the collection of the Canadian War Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, the Musée des Beaux-Arts Montréal, Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, the Vancouver Art Gallery and other, smaller galleries. One art critic referred to May as the "Emily Carr of Montreal"[1] due to her interest in landscape and nature. Her art was originally influenced by her avid interest in French Impressionism, but her mature style owed much to the Group of Seven and more international modernist trends[2].

Henrietta Mabel May
Born(1877-09-11)September 11, 1877
Montreal, Quebec
DiedOctober 8, 1971(1971-10-08) (aged 94)
Burnaby, British Columbia
NationalityCanadian
EducationArt Association of Montreal
Notable work
Women Making Shells (1919), Three Sisters (1915), Melting Snow (1924)
MovementBeaver Hall Group, Group of Canadian Painters
ElectedRoyal Canadian Academy of Arts, associate

Early life

May was born to Evelyn Henriette Walker and Edward May. Her date of birth is often reported as 1884, but she was in fact born on September 11, 1877. Her father, Edward May was a self-made man and became the mayor of Verdun, a borough on the outskirts of Montreal.[3] He later became a successful real estate developer and moved her and the rest of her family to a more prosperous neighbourhood in Montreal called Westmount.

Education

Though May displayed an active interest in art throughout her early years, she did not pursue formal education until she was in her mid-twenties. She delayed her education in order to help take care of her nine younger brothers and sisters while her parents worked trying to provide for them.[4] In 1902 she became one of the first female students enrolled in the Art Association of Montreal (1909 – 1912) under teachers Alberta Cleland and William Brymner. There she was awarded scholarships twice.[5] During this time, she exhibited small watercolours as part of the 1910 Art Association of Montreal Annual Spring Exhibition.[6] Cleland was a female artist from Montreal that worked with a broad range of subjects and tools. Brymner was an important influence on May's style of art, and taught her from 1909 until the end of her studies in 1912. May was influenced by Brymner's teachings of French modernism, including Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and his encouragement for students to find their own individual style.[7] These influences took her to France, England and Holland after her graduation in 1912.[8] There she traveled, visited galleries, studied and painted until her return to Quebec in 1916. During her travels, she studied with James Wilson Morrice, who strongly influenced her style of painting.[9] In 1916, she returned to Montreal, where she resumed her artistic career. Her family owned a second home in the countryside of Hudson, Quebec, where she frequently retreated to paint.

Career

The years following her education brought May a series of remarkable achievements and work opportunities. In 1913 the National Gallery bought three of her art works and would eventually buy two more before 1924. In 1916, after May returned to Montreal, she joined multiple other female artists who worked on commissioned pieces specifically about women's involvement in the First World War. One of her major works was a detailed six-by-seven foot canvas entitled Women Making Shells (1919) honoring munitions workers in a factory.[10] During May's commissioned employment with the Royal Canadian Academy, she made 250 dollars per month, a large fee at that time.

Ogunquit Bathers

Beaver Hall Group

In 1920, May was a founding member of the Beaver Hall Group in Montreal, which supported the local Montreal art community and organized exhibits of their work.[11] Initially led by A. Y. Jackson of the Group of Seven, the Beaver Hall Group was a selection of talented painters from Montreal; most of them had attended the Art Association of Quebec and/or studied under William Brymner. The Beaver Hall Group was extremely progressive at the time for allowing women to join and hold up important roles and positions.[12] Though the group officially disbanded around 1924, a majority of the female members continued to do artistic work afterwards, nearly all of them foregoing marriage or childbearing to do so. Many of the women continued to work with and exhibit with each other. Among those were Prudence Heward, Lilias Torrance Newton, Mabel Lockerby, Anne Savage, Sarah Robertson, Nora Collyer, Kathleen Morris, and Ethel Seath. Emily Coonan, with whom May had traveled in Europe in 1912, was also a member of the group but preferred to go her own way when the group disbanded.

In the winter of 1924, May traveled to Baie-Saint-Paul, where she painted with A.Y. Jackson of the Group of Seven.[5] May developed a landscape style in part based on the aesthetic of the group. In 1927, May, along with three other women from the Beaver Hall Group, met with the British Columbian painter Emily Carr.[13]

Canadian Group of Painters

Shortly after the Beaver Hall Group dissolved, May founded a new group: the Canadian Group of Painters, which officially began in 1933. The group had their first exhibition the same year of their founding in Atlantic City, New Jersey, followed by another exhibition in Toronto a few months later. The group was the successor of the Group of Seven and the Beaver Hall Group. May's involvement with the Canadian Group of Painters lasted a few years, but, while she was in that group, the problems of the Great Depression affected her and her family's finances. She moved to Ottawa, Ontario, where she taught in a private school. In 1938 she was appointed leader of children's classes at the National Gallery of Canada.[14] She taught for 12 years until 1950, when she returned to Montreal, before later moving to Vancouver, British Columbia.

Artistic style

Henrietta Mabel May's primary medium was painting in oil. Initially, she followed the Impressionists. Her main focus was landscapes,[15] although she also painted human figures. Her paint strokes were very strong and pleasing to the eye as the colours flowed together softly. The colours she used were not straight from the tube but blended for more of a naturalistic approach.[16] While May traveled to Europe, she was inspired by the culture of Paris, which was incorporated into her work.

During the time she spent in Hudson every summer, she painted the views around her, creating some of her most successful works. In 1913 her paintings began garnering a lot of recognition and attention. She sold four of her works to the National Gallery and continued to sell several more in the following years. She was elected as an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1915.[17] May was a bold painter who could paint unusual scenes that people did not expect from a woman. For example, Women Making Shells was a powerful painting conveying a scene where women were working in a factory along with men, a novel scene at that time.

Once she became a member of the Beaver Hall Group, her style began to deviate from its impressionistic origins.[16] As the years went on, May's naturalistic approach of applying colour in soothing, rhythmic brushstrokes developed greatly. Her art exhibited more realism, and showed a greater understanding of light and the atmosphere in her landscapes. She began to take on the style of the Group of Seven by whom she was heavily influenced. May's Melting Snow (1925) was a reflection of the dancing waters and lyrical mountains surrounded by flat colours and hills. Additionally, she used loose brushstrokes in the sky.

Her palette was further modified by the influence of a religious group she joined in the late 1930s. An offshoot of the theosophists, the I AM group believed that dark colors produce negative effects.

Collections
  • The Market under the Trees (1912-3),The Regatta (1914), Street Scene, Montreal (1914), Boats on the St. Lawrence (1916), In the Laurentians (1925), The Village (1925), and Melting Snow (1925) are part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada.[9]
  • Été (about 1935) and Paysage d'automne (about 1930) are both part of the permanent collection at the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec.[18]
  • Three Sisters (1915) is part of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery collection.[19]
  • Snowflakes, Studio Window (1925) is part of the Musée des Beaux-Arts Montréal.
  • Autumn in the Laurentians (1925) is part of the permanent collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery.[20]

Exhibitions

May exhibited frequently. Upon her retirement to Vancouver at the age of 50, she held a retrospective of her work at the Dominion Gallery. This show resulted in the sale of 100 of her paintings.[5] A posthumous exhibition of her work along with other works from the Beaver Hall Group occurred at the Sir George Williams Art Galleries in October 1982.[21] In 2015, the Musée des Beaux-Arts Montréal organized a multi-museum tour of a show containing May's work among others: 1920s Modernism in Montreal: The Beaver Hall Group.[22]

Personal life

May never married, but was immersed in family life via her 9 brothers and sisters. After the dissolution of the Beaver Hall Group's studios, she retained close personal friendships with the remaining female artists, including Lilias Torrance Newton, Mabel Lockerby, Anne Savage, Sarah Robertson, and Nora Collyer.[13] Savage remembered her as both a painter and a person:

She was a brilliant figure at the gallery.  She painted with such vigour and strength - gay, rhythmic colour using the impressionist's technique of scintillating colour.  She spent some time in France, came back radiant - loved life - painted in the landscapes of the Eastern Townships, where she built up her singing happy pictures.[23]

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References
  1. Walters, Evelyn (2005). The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian Modernist Painters. Dundurn Press. p. 71.
  2. "Biography of Henrietta Mabel May". Jean-Pierre Valentin Gallery. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  3. Walters, Evelyn (2005). The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian Modernist Painters. Toronto: Dundurn Press. p. 62.
  4. Skelly, Julia (November 2015). "Beaver Hall Group". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
  5. Deis, Author: Vancouver Art Gallery, Design: Eric. "Henrietta Mabel May, Autumn in the Laurentians - Artist's Biography". projects.vanartgallery.bc.ca. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  6. Watson, William R. (April 13, 1910). "Notable Canvases in Art Exhibit. But Tone Would Have Been Improved by Elimination of Many Pictures. Review of Chief Features. What Morrice, Cullen, Brymner and Other Leaders in Canadian Art Offer This Year. ( April 05, 1910))" (PDF). Montreal Gazette. p. 4. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  7. "May Henrietta Mabel". Canadian Women's Art Initiative. 6 June 2013.
  8. Skelly, Julia (30 Nov 2015). "Beaver Hall Group". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
  9. "The Regatta. H. Mabel May c. 1914". www.gallery.ca. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  10. Shearer, Lynda (2006). "The Canadian Group of Painters". The Canadian Art Group. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  11. "Canadian Women Artists History Initiative : Artist Database : Artists : MAY, Henrietta Mabel". cwahi.concordia.ca.
  12. Walters, Evelyn (2005). The Women of Beaver Hall:Canadian Modernist Painters. Toronto: Dundurn Press. p. 62.
  13. Skelly, Julia. "Beaver Hall Group". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  14. Walters, Evelyn (2005). The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian Modernist Painters. Toronto: Dundurn Press. p. 71.
  15. "May, Henrietta Mabel". Canadian Women Artist's History Initiative. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  16. Millar, Joyce (1992). "The Beaver Hall Group: Painting in Montreal, 1920-40". Woman's Art Journal. 13: 3–9. JSTOR 1358252.
  17. Millar, Joyce (1992). "The Beaver Hall Group: Painting in Montreal, 1920-40". Woman's Art Journal. 13: 3–9. JSTOR 1358252.
  18. "Henrietta Mabel May". www.collections.mnbaq.org. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  19. The Beaverbrook Art Gallery Collection: Selected Works. Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada: The Beaverbrook Art Gallery. 2000. p. 119. ISBN 0-920674-47-X.
  20. "75 Years of Collecting, The Vancouver Art Gallery". Yumpu. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  21. Kollar, Kathryn L. Women painters of the Beaver Hall Group. Montreal: Concordia University.
  22. "August 5, 2016". Carleton University Faculty of the Arts and Social Sciences. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  23. "Henrietta Mabel May, Important Canadian Artists, Sotheby's Catalog". Sotheby's. 2011. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
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