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Listed Canadian Artist: (1893-1986)
Hand Pulled Serigraph: Silkscreen in at least eight colours.
Signed: “K.M.Morris” in the lower right of screen.
Sight size: w: 4 5/8 in. x h: 3 1/2in.
Title Known As: “Cab Stand, Montreal” from Coutts series of cards
Print Condition: Near Pristine with no condition issues, bright colours
Hand Carved Frame & Matted: with archival acid-free materials throughout.
Kathleen Moir Morris ARCA
A Note of Interest: This Holgate serigraph is one of a series of 43 serigraphs created in 1931 for Coutts Hallmark Christmas cards. Group of Seven member A.Y.Jackson was the driving force behind this project and twenty-six of Canada’s leading artist were asked to contribute to this fund raising venture for needy artists, which became known as the 'Painters of Canada' series of Chrismas cards. Due to a drastic downturn in the economy brought on by the 1929 stock market crash, this project soon dwindled and after a few years the cards were removed from the marketplace. So, no one knows what happened to the remaining unsold cards, whether they were stored away or thrown out, nor is anyone quite sure how many of these historic Christmas cards still remain in existance today. This Holgate serigraph was matted and encased in-house by us, in a hand-carved frame resembling the style created by the early 20th C. Montreal miniaturist, Willard Morse Mitchell.
Kathleen Moir Morris was born in Montreal, P.Q., the daughter of Montague J. Morris and Eliza Howard (Bell) Morris. As a young child she attended Misses Gardiners' private school in Montreal and joined the classes of the Art Association of Montreal where she studied under William Brymner from 1907 to 1917 and then two years under Maurice Cullen at his summer sketching classes. Early on she became influenced by J.W. Morrice and she began to exhibit with the Royal Canadian Academy and the Montreal Spring Shows in 1914, and then with the Ontario Society of Artists in 1921. Kathleen was a member of the Beaver Hall Hill Group in the early 1920's. Mainly she has been a painter of landscapes, marketplaces and street scenes usually with animals, human figures and early horse drawn carriages.
Viewing her 1962 joint show with Lincoln G. Morris, Dorothy Pfeiffer the art critic noted, "Rarely have I seen an exhibition in which such unity and consistency of approach were evident. Particularly remarkable in the woman painter's sense of joie de vivre; her clever use of dabs and dashes of brilliant orange-red livens every canvas. Among Miss Morris's subjects are old tramcars, market scenes, snow sleighs with their patient shaggy horses; old churches, as background for the sleighs of Sunday church goers, along with processions of gentle nuns and lively children. One of the most charming paintings shown depicts a flock of sparrows on a snowy fence and bare branches. No one could observe this cheery work without feeling a sense of participation, as if watching the scene from a hidden window. Such painting brings peace to the soul. It is humane, it is technically authoritative, it is the personal expression of the joy of life and of tangible emotion by a gifted, forthright, fearless artist."
From 1922 to 1929 she lived in Ottawa then returned to Montreal where she has remained. Important showings of her work have been held at the Art Association of Montreal, 1939, Montreal Arts Club, 1956 and 1962. She had participated in the following group shows: Canadian Section of Fine Arts, British Empire Exhibition, Wembley, England 1924 and 1925; First Pan-American Exhibition, 1925; Exposition d'art canadien, Musée du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France, 1927; Canadian art at the British Empire Trade Exhibition, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1931; Contemporary Canadian Painting circulated in Southern Dominions of British Empire in 1936; Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture by Artists of the British Empire Overseas, Royal Institute Galleries, London, Eng., 1937; A Century of Canadian Art, Tate Gallery, Lond. Eng., 1938; World's Fair, New York City, 1939; Pintura Canadense Contemporanea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1944; Canadian Women Artists, Riverside Museum, New York, 1947; Contemporary Canadian Painting, Canadian Club, New York, 1948; Festival of Britain, London, 1951.
She is represented in the collections of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, B.C.; Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ont.; Canadian Legation, Paris; Hart House, Univ. Tor., Ont., Mackenzie King Museum, Kitchener, Ont.; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the National Gallery of Canada; National Archives of Canada, Ottawa. Kathleen was elected A.R.C.A. 1929; C.G.P., 1940.
Reference source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I: A-F", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977
Kathleen Moir Morris passed away in 1986.
Print Ref No: 7TTE12EB-S/TAOEX
Kathleen Moir Morris ARCA, Canadian Artist Printm
The 1931 Christmas cards shown here are from the “Painters of Canada” series that was published by William E. Coutts, the founder of Hallmark Cards Canada. They were all printed by the best in the business, the Sampson-Matthews Company of Toronto.
The series is composed of 46 Christmas cards, 43 of which are serigraphs and three of which are photo mechanical reproductions. Twenty-six notable Canadian artists contributed to this series, among them were several members of the Group of Seven. A key figure in the creation of these cards was A.Y. Jackson, who encouraged William E. Coutts to issue this special series. Jackson envisioned that the production of this series could act as a partial source of income for some of the artists who were experiencing financial difficulties at that time. Coutts also saw it as an opportunity to create artful contemporary Canadian greeting cards that had never been previously presented in this fashion.
The “Painters of Canada” series, that at first promised to be a great success, was unfortunately, created during the Great Depression. So, over just a few short years, the “Painters of Canada” series was designated a financial failure and was relegated to the waste bin of time. Although the actual number of Coutts cards printed is uncertain, it is known that the selling price at that time ranged from $37.50 to $67.50 per box of 100 cards. It is also known that only 25 to 50 boxes of cards were eventually sold and there is no accounting for the remainder of the unsold boxes of cards. It's presumed that they remaining cards were destroyed and are gone forever.
William Coutts was a great supporter of the arts in Canada. Since the founding of the William E. Coutts Company in 1916, he greatly admired and included Canadian artists for greeting card subject matter that illustrated the life and times of Canada in the 1930's. The “Painters of Canada” series began at the very end of the 1920s and even though they weren't around for long, their creation started an on-going tradition for Hallmark Cards Canada, the successor to The William E. Coutts Company. The 1931 series did represent some of the greatest achievements in Coutts' production history with respect to the cards style and presentation, the processes used to create them and the quality of the product itself.
Kathleen Moir Morris ARCA, Important Canadian Painter
Updated November 2, 2023 |
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