I haven’t been to the Art Gallery of Ontario for quite a while. It was a valuable return as I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition Cassatt-McNicoll: Impressionists Between Worlds.

https://ago.ca/exhibitions/cassatt-mcnicoll-impressionists-between-worlds

I have seen Mary Cassatt’s work somewhere before – I can’t recall where. However, Helen McNicoll’s work is new to me. She was a Canadian artist, though she mostly lived in the UK. Like Cassatt (who was American but also primarily lived in Europe), she painted women’s lives.

The exhibition cleverly highlights the similarities and differences between their approaches. Both were very advanced, well trained, skilled, and relatively successful, Cassatt probably more so, or at least she was more well known in her time and after. Both came from well off backgrounds that allowed them the freedom to travel, learn, and paint professionally.

Doors were often closed to these women; however, they opened their own by developing unique styles. Cassatt is known for her mother and child portraits. So is McNicoll, apparently. My favourite of hers in this genre is the one where the mother (or caregiver) has her hand on the baby carriage but does not turn her gaze toward the child as she is reading!

McNicoll painted a series portraying women on a chintz sofa in her studio, some of contemporary women (early 1900s) in modern dress. Two were of women in heavily Victorian garb. I am absolutely fascinated by these pictures. In reading the exhibit book I have learned that McNicoll seemed to be making a point about the outdated crinoline style in comparison with the sleeker contemporary style, in particular by those in favour of women’s suffrage. While the expectation at the time was generally still that women were to be limited to the domestic sphere, McNicoll highlighted the sofa as not only a part of her domicile, but of her work. That’s not to say she was a suffragette, apparently.

One very interesting feature of the exhibit was a soundless video of two deaf artists discussing Helen McNicoll’s work. She was deaf from the age of two. It’s nice to see the institution diversifying its perspectives.

Sadly, McNicoll died at a very young age from diabetes. I’m happy to have discovered her. As a person learning how to paint, I am totally enthralled by her technique. As a history teacher, I am interested in discovering more about her in the context of her times.