Home > Artist Database > Bio-bibliographic Database > CREASE, Sarah Lindley
Artist Database
CREASE, Sarah Lindley
- Born
- Acton, London, England, 1826
- Died
- Victoria, British Columbia, 1922
- Biography synopsis
- Born into an artistic family, Sarah Lindley Crease's father was a botanist, who instilled his love of botanical illustration in his daughter. From an early age, she was taught the rudiments of depicting specimens in watercolours and pencil, and was also introduced to copperplate engraving and woodblock printing. Between 1842 and 1858, she produced botanical illustrations for her father's publications, such as "Gardener's Chronicle" and "The Vegetable Kingdom." She often translated her sketches into woodblock prints. Following her marriage in 1853, she moved to Cornwall where Henry Crease was a mining manager. He resigned in 1857 and moved to Vancouver Island the following year. Sarah and the children joined him in 1860, and they remained in Victoria until 1862, when they moved to New Westminster. After six years they returned to Victoria, where they built their family home, Pentrelew. Sarah became a patron of numerous charitable organizations, including the Island Arts and Crafts Society. Despite her husband's position, the family remained financially insecure, and Sarah often performed clerical duties for him, straining her eyesight. However, she continued to sketch and paint, completing a series of twelve watercolours depicting the Hudson's Bay Company fort and the town of Victoria, which were shown in 1862 at the International Exhibition in London. Several of these sketches were reproduced in publications, such as Richard Charles Mayne's "Four years in British Columbia and Vancouver Island." She also sketched landscapes in New Westminster, Hope, Yale, and the Fraser River and Pentrelew, and published two illustrations in the Church of England's annual report. Her failing eyesight made these activities increasingly difficult and they ceased altogether in the 1870s. Several hundred of her ink, pencil and watercolour works are in the British Columbia Archives, providing a detailed pictorial record of colonial British Columbia.
- Media used
- Drawing
- Painting
- Watercolour
- Education
- Private study (under Charles Fox, London)
- Private study (under Sarah Ann Drake, London)
- File & Archive locations
- National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
- University of British Columbia - Fine Arts Library
- British Columbia Archives
- Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
- University of Virginia - Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- Amos, Robert. "A Woman's Place Defined." Times-Colonist (Victoria) 7 Oct. 2004: D8
- Bonson, Anita. "Sarah Crease and Susan Crease: diaries, British Columbia, 1878" The small details of life: twenty diaries by women in Canada, 1830-1996 Toronto, Buffalo: University ot Toronto Press, 2002
- Bridge, Kathryn. "Two Colonial Artists" British Columbia Historical News Vol. 16, no. 4 (1983): 6-13
http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/pdfs/bchf/bchn_1983_summer.pdf - Bridge, Kathryn Anne. Henry & self: the private life of Sarah Crease 1826-1922 Victoria: Sono Nis Press, 1996
- Bridge, Kathryn Anne. Two Victorian Gentlewomen in the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia: Eleanor Hill Fellows and Sarah Lindley Crease. Victoria: University of Victoria, 1984
- Bumsted, J. M.. A History of the Canadian Peoples New York: Oxford University Press, 2003
- Clark, Cecil. "Yesterday/Today" The Victorian (Victoria) Victoria: (3 March 1976): B4
- Clark, Cecil. "Yesterday/Today" The Victorian (Victoria) Victoria: (1 March 1976): B4
- Claudet, Francis G.. Catalogue of the Vancouver Contribution: with a short account of Vancouver Island and British Columbia London: ?, 1862
- Finlay, K.A. and Shea, T.. "A Woman's Place" Art and the Role of Women in the Cultural Formation of Victoria B.C. 1850s-1920s Victoria, B.C.: Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery, University of Victoria, 2004
- Francis, Daniel. Encyclopedia of British Columbia Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2000
- Gilmore, Bernice C. Artists Overland: A Visual Record of British Columbia 1793-1886 Burnaby: Burnaby Art Gallery, 1980
- Harper, J. Russell. Early Painters and Engravers in Canada Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1970
- House, Maria Newberry. Plantae Occidentalis: 200 Years of Botanical Art in British Columbia Vancouver: Botanical Garden University of British Columbia, 1979
- Humphreys, Danda. "Home for the Creases" Times-Colonist (Victoria) Victoria: (30 August 1998): 3
- Huneault, Kristina. I'm Not Myself at All: Women, Art, and Subjectivity in Canada Montreal; Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2018
- Jackson, Christopher E.. With Lens and Brush: Images of the Western Canadian Landscape, 1845-1890 Calgary: Glenbow Museum, 1989
- Johnson-Dean, Christina B. The Crease Family and the Arts in Victoria, British Columbia. Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1983
- Johnson-Dean, Christina B. The Crease Family Archives: A Record of Settlement and Service in British Columbia Victoria, British Columbia: Provincial Archives of British Columbia, 1982
- Joiner, Ron. "Crease Street" Times-Colonist (Victoria) Victoria: (25 January 1997): 1
- Lamonde, Yvan et al., eds. History of the Book in Canada: Vol. 2, 1840-1914. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005
- Layland, Michael. In Nature’s Realm: Early Naturalists Explore Vancouver Island Toronto: TouchWood Editions, 2019
- Lugrin, Nora de Bertrand. Pioneer Women of Vancouver Island Victoria: The Women Canadian Club of Victoria, BC, 1928
- McKendry, Blake. Dictionary of Folk Artists in Canada: From the 17th Century to the Present Elginburg: Blake McKendry, 1988
- Moon, Anne. "Of brave B.C. women..." The Times-Colonist (Victoria) Victoria: (4 October 1998): 10
- Morton, Anne. "Representative Lives" The Beaver Vol. 77, no. 4 (Aug/Sept 1997): 42,43
- Ogle, Andy. "A treasure of plant life; Museum receives specimens from Palliser Expedition" Edmonton Journal Edmonton: (28 October 1998): A5
- Perry, Adele. "Writing Women into British Columbia History." BC Studies No. 122 (1999): 85-88
- Petteys, Chris, et al. Dictionary of Women Artists: An International Dictionary of Women Artists Born Before 1900 Boston: G. K. Hall, 1985
- Powell, Barbara. "The diaries of the Crease women" BC Studies Nos. 105/106 (1995): 44-58
- Salmon, Peter. "Sunday Reader - Islander - History of Painting in Victoria." Times-Colonist (Victoria) 12 May 1996: 1
- Stearn, W. T., ed.. "Lindley documents in the British Columbia Archives" John Lindley (1799-1865): Gardener-Botanist and Pioneer Orchidologist: Bicentenary Celebration Volume Suffolk, England: Antique Collectors Club, 1999, 191-92
- Stearn, W. T., ed.. "Lindley documents in the British Columbia Archives" John Lindley (1799-1865): Gardener-Botanist and Pioneer Orchidologist: Bicentenary Celebration Volume Suffolk, England: Antique Collectors Club, 1999
- Tuele, Nicholas. "B.C. Women Artists: 1885-1985" Canadian Collector (November/December 1985): 60-63
- Vancouver Centennial Museum. An inventory and catalogue of historical paintings and drawings done in 19th-century British Columbia Vancouver: Centennial Museum, 1969
- Ward, Olivia. "Dear Diary: keeping date with history" The Province (Victoria) Victoria: (19 February 1972): 46, 47
Writings by- Crease, Sarah. Sarah Lindley's Family Letters to Henry Crease Richmond, BC: R. M. Hamilton, 1996
- Crease, Sarah Lindley. Sarah Lindley's Family Letters to Henry Crease: part one, July - December 1849 Richmond, BC: R. M. Hamilton, 1996
- Crease, Sarah Lindley. Sarah Lindley's Famly Letters to Henry Crease: part two, January 1852 - September 1851 Richmond, BC: R. M. Hamilton, 1997
