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CHAPLIN, Millicent Mary

Born
Leadenham, Lincolnshire, England, 1790
Died
Normanby Park, Lincolnshire, England, 1858
Biography synopsis
Amateur artist Millicent Mary Chaplin came to Canada with her husband, Thomas Chaplin, a lieutenant-colonel in the Coldstream Guards, when he was posted to Quebec (then Lower Canada) from 1838-42. Working primarily in watercolour (and signing her works "MMC"), Chaplin captured many views of Ottawa, Quebec (particularly the Montmorency Falls) and the Maritime provinces, and also delighted in depicting the locals, paying particular attention to customs and dress. In addition to producing original scenes, Chaplin also copied works by professional watercolourists she may have been acquainted with, including James Hope-Wallace, Henry William Barnard, and Philip John Bainbrigge. Almost all of her works were contained in a single sketchbook, comprising over 130 drawings, now in the collection of the National Archives of Canada. She is also represented in the Sigmund Samuel Collection at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
Media used
Drawing
Painting
Watercolour
File & Archive locations
Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, ON
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Writings about
Allodi, Mary. Canadian Watercolours and Drawings in the Royal Ontario Museum. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 1974
Barbeau, Marius. I Have Seen Québec Toronto: Macmillan, 1957
Béland, Mario. Painting in Quebec, 1820-1850: New Views, New Perspectives. Québec: Musée du Québec, 1992
Beland, Mario, ed.. Millicent Mary Chaplin La Peinture au Québec 1820-1850: Nouveaux Regards, Nouvelles Perspectives Québec, Québec: Musée du Québec, 1991: 218-221
Bell, Michael. Painters in a New Land: From Annapolis Royal to the Klondike. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973
Burant, James, ed.. Drawing on the Land: the New World Travel Diaries and Watercolours of Millicent Mary Chaplin, 1838-1842 Manotick, Ontario: Penumbra Press, 2004
Burant, Jim. "The Military Artist and the Documentary Art Record" Archivaria No.26 (Summer 1988): 33-51
Cooke, W. Martha E. W. H. Coverdale Collection of Canadiana: Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings, Manoir Richelieu Collection. Ottawa: Public Archives of Canada, 1983
Harper, J. Russell. Early Painters and Engravers in Canada Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1970
Huneault, Kristina. I'm Not Myself at All: Women, Art, and Subjectivity in Canada Montreal; Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2018
Huneault, Kristina. "Placing Frances Hopkins: A British Born Artist in Colonial Canada." Local/global : Women Artists in the Nineteenth Century. Editors Deborah Cherry and Janice Helland Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate, 2006: 179-200
Lacoursière, Jacques, et al.. Canada-Québec: synthèse historique, 1534-2000 Sillery, QC: Septentrion, 2001
Lambert, Pierre. Les anciennes diligences du Québec: Le transport en voiture publique du XIXe siècle Sillery, QC: Septentrion, 1998
Larin, Robert. Brève histoire du peuplement européen en Nouvelle-France Sillery, QC: Septentrion, 2000
Lepailleur, Francois Maurice, and Frank Murray Greenwood. Land of a Thousand Sorrows: The Australian Prison Journal, 1840-1842, of the Exiled Canadien Patriote, Francois Maurice Lepailleur Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1980
Lerner, Loren R. and Mary F. Williamson. Art and Architecture in Canada: A Bibliography and Guide to the Literature to 1981 Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991
Mangan, J.A., and Andrew Ritchie, eds.. Ethnicity, Sport, Identity: Struggles for Status New York and London: Routledge, 2004
McKendry, Blake. A to Z of Canadian Art: Artists and Art Terms. Kingston: B. McKendry, 1997
McKendry, Blake. Dictionary of Folk Artists in Canada: From the 17th Century to the Present. Elginburg: Blake McKendry, 1988
National Archives of Canada. Annual Review of the National Archives of Canada [1997] Ottawa: The Archives, 1997
Nesmith, Tom. Canadian Archival Studies and the Rediscovery of Provenance Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1993
Noel, Jan. "Drawing on the Land: The New World Travel Diaries and Watercolours of Millicent Mary Chaplin, 1838-1842" Ontario History vol. 97, no. 2, Autumn 2005: 230-231.
Petteys, Chris, et al. Dictionary of Women Artists: An International Dictionary of Women Artists Born Before 1900. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1985
Porter, John R., and Didier Prioul. Québec plein la vue Quebec: Musée du Québec, 1994
Poulter, Gillian. "Snowshoeing and Lacrosse: Canada's Nineteenth-Century 'National Games'" Sport in Society Vol. 6, no. 2/3 (October 2003): 293-320
Public Archives of Canada. General Guide Series 1983: Picture Division Ottawa: The Archives, 1984
Public Archives of Canada. The Archivist [1997] Ottawa: The Archives, 1997
Sparling, Mary. "Nova Scotia Women and the Ornamental Branches." Great Expectations: the European Vision in Nova Scotia: 1749-1848. Halifax: Mount Saint Vincent University, 1980: 53-72
Sparling, Mary. "The Lighter Auxiliaries": Women Artists in Nova Scotia in the early Nineteenth Century. Atlantis 5.1 (Fall 1979): 83-106
Tippett, Maria. By a Lady. Toronto: Viking, 1992

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