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COURTICE, Rody Kenny

Born
Renfrew, Ontario, 1891
Died
Toronto, Ontario, 1973
Biography synopsis
Rody Kenny Courtice (née Roselyn Kenny and also known as Roselyn Hammond after her first marriage) was one of the first women to study at the Ontario College of Art with Arthur Lismer, winning a scholarship each year (1920-1924). She attended the Art Institute of Chicago (1927), where she studied puppets and stagecraft with Tony Sarg. She continued those studies in New York, London and Paris. In 1950 she attended Hans Hofmann’s summer school in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She worked as the librarian at the Ontario College of Art (1925-1926) and as Assistant Instructor to Arthur Lismer for Children’s Classes for ten years. She was also Assistant Instructor to J.W. Beatty at Port Hope Summer School. She taught at the Doon School of Art and Teachers’ Summer Course with John Alford. She exhibited at the Tate Gallery, London, in Brazil, New York at the World’s Fair (1939), Riverside Museum, the American-British Gallery, New York and Victoria College, Toronto (solo show 1951). Courtice was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy, the Ontario Society of Artists, the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, the Canadian Society of Graphic Art, the Heliconian Society, and the Federation of Canadian Artists. Courtice often gave her date of birth as 1895, but 1891 is correct.
Media used
Painting
Education
Ontario College of Art & Design (formerly Ontario School of Art), 1920 - 1924 (under Arthur Lismer; J.E.H. MacDonald)
Art Institute of Chicago, 1927 (under Tony Sarg)
Hans Hofmann's Summer School, Provincetown, 1950
Memberships
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Ontario Society of Artists
Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour
Canadian Society of Graphic Art
Heliconian Club
Federation of Canadian Artists
File & Archive locations
University of British Columbia - Fine Arts Library
Vancouver Art Gallery, BC - Library
London Public Library, ON
National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, ON
Art Gallery of Ontario - Edward P. Taylor Research Library and Archives
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts / Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, QC
Toronto Reference Library, ON
Winnipeg Art Gallery, MA - Clara Lander Library
Hamilton Public Library, ON - Local History and Archives Department
Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, ON
University of Guelph, ON - Archival & Special Collections
Archives of Ontario
Queen's University Archives, ON
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Writings about
A Century of Canadian Art. Ottawa and London: National Gallery of Canada and Tate Gallery, 1938
"Canadian Group Shows Nearly 100 Paintings." Gazette (Montreal) 10 Jan. 1948
"Fine Work Marks R.C.A. Exhibition." Gazette (Montreal) 20 Nov. 1925
Art Gallery of Ontario. Rody Kenny Courtice, B.Cogill Haworth, Yvonne McKague Housser, Isabel McLaughlin, November 15th-December 15, 1940. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1940
Ayre, Robert. "Canadian Group of Painters' Exhibition is Small but Good." Standard (Montreal) 14 Mar. 1942: 29
Ayre, Robert. "The Canadian Group of Painters." Canadian Art 6.3 (Spring 1949): 98-102
Boutilier, Alicia. 4 Women Who Painted in the 1930s and 1940s: Rody Kenny Courtice, Bobs Cogill Haworth, Yvonne McKague Housser and Isabel McLaughlin. Ottawa: Carleton University Art Gallery, 1998
Cameron, Janice, et al. Eclectic Eve. Toronto: Ontario College of Art and Design, 1974
Duval, Paul. Canadian Impressionism. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin and Co, 1972
Duval, Paul. Four Decades: the CGP and their Contemporaries, 1930-70. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1972
Jackson, A.Y. A Painter's Country. Toronto: Clarke Irwin, 1972
Jansma, Linda. Rody Kenny Courtice: The Pattern of Her Times Oshawa: The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2006
London Public Library and Art Museum. Master Canadian Painters and Sculptors. London, Ontario: 1963
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.
McInnes, G. Campbell. “World of Art.” Saturday Night (18 Jan. 1936): 4
Robson, Albert Henry. Canadian Landscape Painters. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1932
Tippett, Maria. By a Lady. Toronto: Viking, 1992

Full text pdfs of exhibition reviews
Royal Canadian Academy Annual Exhibition: (Montreal, ) "Fine Work Marks R.C.A. Exhibition. New Schools Offer Contrast to Solidly-Based Qualities of Older and Established Painters."  Gazette (Montreal)  .  p.10.   Full-text pdf
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
Ontario Society of Artists Annual Exhibition: (Toronto, ) Constance C. Mackay.  "O.S.A. Exhibit."  Toronto Saturday Night  .  p.39.   Full-text pdf
Ontario Society of Artists Annual Exhibition: (Toronto, ) Lucy Van Gogh.  "World of Art."  Toronto Saturday Night  .  p.15.   Full-text pdf
Ontario Society of Artists Annual Exhibition: (Toronto, ) G. Campbell McInnes.  "World of Art."  Toronto Saturday Night  .  p.10.   Full-text pdf
Royal Canadian Academy Annual Exhibition: (, ) Fred H. Brigden.  "The Fifty-Seventh Annual Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts."  Royal Architectural Institute of Canada  .  13.12: pp.216-223.   Full-text pdf
Art Association of Montreal Annual Spring Exhibition: (Montreal, ) Robert Ayre.  "Evolution In Canadian Art Principle Message of Exhibition. 56th In Art Association's History."  Standard (Montreal)  .  p.20.   Full-text pdf

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