Home > Artist Database > Bio-bibliographic Database > CANN, Elizabeth
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CANN, Elizabeth
- Born
- Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, 1901
- Died
- Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, 1977
- Biography synopsis
- Elizabeth Lovitt Cann started her academic studies in a private school in Montreal and at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. In 1921 she moved to New York, where she studied at the School of Applied Design for Women. From 1922 to 1936 she traveled and lived in France, England, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Algiers. During those years she studied at the Harvey Proctor School In England, at the Academie Julien, the Atelier chez Bileul and the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris. Painter in a realistic style, Cann was best known as a portraitist. Her portraits of women in wartime are recognized for showing the domestic routine and loneliness during the war. She also did landscape, still life painting and drawing in conté and pencil on lithographic plates. After 1923, Elizabeth Cann had several exhibitions in Canada and abroad. In 1927 the Johnson Art Galleries mounted her first solo exhibition in Montreal. Her work was accepted at the Spring Salon in Paris (1929) and one of her paintings was accepted at the Royal Canadian Academy exhibition in Toronto in 1930. In 1936 she returned to Yarmouth, where she continued painting until her death in 1977.
- Media used
- Painting
- Education
- Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts
- Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris
- Harvey Proctor School, England
- New York School of Applied Design for Women
- Académie Julian, Paris
- Memberships
- Nova Scotia Society of Artists
- File & Archive locations
- Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
- London Public Library, ON
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts / Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, QC
- National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
- Toronto Reference Library, ON
- Vancouver Art Gallery, BC - Library
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- Hashey, Mary W., ed. Maritime Artists Vol. 1. Fredericton: Maritime Art Association, 1967
- Kelly, Gemey. Elizabeth Cann. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Dalhousie Art Gallery, 1987
- Laberge, Albert. "Nouvelle visite au salon de l'academie royale canadienne." La Presse (Montreal) 6 Dec. 1929
- MacDonald, Colin S. The Dictionary of Canadian Artists. (Volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker) Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2009.
- Maritime Art Association. Paintings by Artists of the Maritimes: Seventh Annual Exhibition. Halifax: Maritime Art Association, 1942
- McMann, Evelyn de Rostaing. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Formerly Art Association of Montreal: Spring Exhibitions, 1880-1970. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988
- McMann, Evelyn de Rostaing. Royal Canadian Academy of Arts/Académie royale des arts du Canada: Exhibitions and Members 1880-1979 Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981
Full text pdfs of exhibition reviews- Royal Canadian Academy Annual Exhibition: (Montreal, ) "R.C.A. Show Opened with Private View. Fifty-first Annual Exhibition Housed in Art Association Galleries." Gazette (Montreal) . p.18. Full-text pdf
- Royal Canadian Academy Annual Exhibition: (Montreal, ) Albert Laberge. "Nouvelle visite au Salon de l'Académie Royle Canadienne. Remarquables scènes de la mer par Rita Mount, magistral portrait de femme par Wayman Adams, et scenes des champs par James Graham." La Presse (Montreal) . p.17. Full-text pdf
- Art Association of Montreal Annual Spring Exhibition: (Montreal, ) "Spring Exhibition on Generous Scale. Show at Art Gallery Opened Last Night Contains 621 Items." Gazette (Montreal) . p.2. Full-text pdf
- Art Association of Montreal Annual Spring Exhibition: (Montreal, ) "Annual Spring Exhibition at Art Association." Montreal Star . p.8. Full-text pdf
- Royal Canadian Academy Annual Exhibition: (, ) "R.C.A. Exhibition Has Private View. Over 300 Works in Galleries of Art Association of Montreal. Standard Maintained." Gazette (Montreal) . p.5. Full-text pdf
- Royal Canadian Academy Annual Exhibition: (, ) "Canadian Academy Opens Sixtieth Exhibition." Montreal Star . p.11. Full-text pdf
- Art Association of Montreal Annual Spring Exhibition: (Montreal, ) "Art Association Opens 57th Spring Exhibit. Notable Feature of Display Is Unusually Large Proportion Of Portraits or Portrait Studies." Montreal Star . p.19. Full-text pdf
