Home > Artist Database > Bio-bibliographic Database > CREASE, Josephine
Artist Database
CREASE, Josephine
- Born
- New Westminster, British Columbia, 1864
- Died
- Victoria, British Columbia, 1947
- Biography synopsis
- Of all the Crease family artists, Josephine Crease had the most enduring interest in art, particularly in sketching and in watercolour landscapes. Although she took private lessons intermittently throughout her life, her greatest opportunity to study art came when she and her sister, Susan, were sent to England to meet their relatives. There, they studied art in the Ladies' Department, King's College, London, where they took antique and life classes. Josephine was also fond of organizing sketching expeditions, and frequently explored various areas of Vancouver Island searching for new landscapes to represent. A close friend of many of Victoria's upper class women artists, including Sophie Pemberton, the artist was a founding member of the Island Arts and Crafts Society and exhibited her work in their annual shows from 1919-1941. In addition, she also served on the committee of the Society's School of Handicraft and Design and became its Honourary President in 1939. Other association memberships include the Sketching Club (1900-09; president in 1903), the Drawing and Library Club (1902), the Women's Canadian Club and the Alexandra Club (treasurer 1898). She also participated in exhibitions of the British Columbia Society of Fine Arts (1924), the Vancouver Art Gallery (1934-40) and the Victoria Fair, where she won first prize for her watercolours in 1901 and 1906. Her work can be found in the collections of the Provincial Archives of British Columbia and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
- Media used
- Painting
- Watercolour
- Education
- Angela College, Victoria
- Private study (under Ellen Chaffey Richards, Victoria)
- De L'Aubinière Studio, Victoria
- King's College, London, 1889 - ?
- Angela College, Victoria, 1878 - ?
- Private study, 1908 (under Ethel Leather (lessons in riveting for mending china))
- King's College, London, 1889 - 1891 (under Albert William Holden)
- Private study, 1889 (under Lottie Aliston)
- Private study, 1887 - 1888 (under Samuel Maclure (painting))
- Private study, 1888 (under Charles and Georgina de L'Aubiniere)
- Private study, 1881 (under Ellen Chaffey Richards)
- Private study, 1889 (under Ainslie Borrow)
- Private study, 1891 - 1901 (under Sophie Pemberton)
- Private study, 1905 - 1906 (under Josephine Woodward)
- Private study, 1910 (under Anne Batchelor)
- Memberships
- Island Arts and Crafts Society, 1901
- Sketching Club, Victoria, 1900
- Drawing and Library Club, Victoria, 1902
- File & Archive locations
- National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
- University of British Columbia - Fine Arts Library
- Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
- University of Virginia - Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
- British Columbia Archives
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- "Frontier Women in B.C.: Portrait of a Nation's Soul" The Vancouver Sun 17 Dec 2002: A10
- "Miss Crease" Victoria Daily Times 22 Sept. 1892
- "Obituary" Colonist (Victoria, BC) 25 Dec. 1947
- "This is for Saturday Dec. 18 1993." Times-Colonist (Victoria) (21 Dec. 1993): 1
- "Victoria Through Artist's Eyes - 1845 to present" Arts Victoria Victoria: Vol. 5, no. 1 (May 1979): 8
- Amos, Robert. "A Woman's Place Defined." Times-Colonist (Victoria) 7 Oct. 2004: D8
- Amos, Robert. "Artist brought modernism to Victoria." Times-Colonist (Victoria) 21 Aug. 2003: F4
- Amos, Robert. "Carr show at AGGV crammed with history" Times-Colonist (Victoria, BC) 15 June 1996: 1
- Amos, Robert. "This is for Saturday" Times-Colonist Victoria, B.C: 21 December, 1993: 1.
- Bridge, Kathryn Anne. Henry & self: the private life of Sarah Crease 1826-1922 Victoria: Sono Nis Press, 1996
- Bridge, Kathy. A History of Victoria's Art Organizations and their Influences Over the Years 1976
- 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
- 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
- Hembroff-Schleicher, Edythe. The Modern Room. Victoria: Emily Carr Gallery of the Pronvincial Archives of BC, 1981
- Hubbard, R. H.. Ample mansions : the viceregal residences of the Canadian provinces Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1989
- Hume, Stephen. "Elite excess and riff-raff reality: Series: Frontier Women in B.C.: Portrait of a Nation's Soul" The Vancouver Sun Vancouver: (17 December 2002): A10
- Hume, Stephen Eaton. Raincoast Chronicles 20: Lilies and Fireweed: Frontier Women of BC Madeira Park, British Columbia: Harbour Publishing, 2004
- Humphreys, Danda. "Home for the Creases" Times-Colonist (Victoria) Victoria: (30 August 1998): 3
- Island Arts and Crafts Club. Catalogue of the Fifth Annual Exhibition: Island Arts and Crafts Club, to be held November 19th, 20th and 21st, 1914, Alexandra Club. Victoria: Island Arts and Crafts Club, 1914
- Johnson-Dean, Christina. "British Columbia. Women Artists, 1885-1920." British Columbia Women Artists, 1885-1985 Victoria: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1985
- Johnson-Dean, Christina B. The Crease Family and the Arts in Victoria, British Columbia. Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1983
- Lover, John Gordon. The Victoria Sketch Club: A Centennial Celebration, 1909-2009 Victoria, B.C.: Victoria Sketch Club, 2008
- McKendry, Blake. Dictionary of Folk Artists in Canada: From the 17th Century to the Present Elginburg: Blake McKendry, 1988
- Nicol, Janet Mary. "Sophie Pemberton" Artichoke vol.12, no.2, summer 2000: 8-10
- Pazdro, Roberta J. "From Pastels to Chisel: The Changing Role of BC Women Artists." Not Just Pin Money. Victoria: Camosun, 1984
- 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
- Segger, Martin. "Arts and Crafts Artist: More than a Dalliance" The Buildings of Samuel Maclure: In Search of Appropriate Form Victoria: Sono Nis Press, 1986
- Tippett, Maria and Douglas Cole. From Desolation to Splendour: Changing Perceptions of the British Columbia Landscape Toronto: Clarke, Irwin and Company Ltd, 1977
- Tippett, Maria and Douglas Cole. "Art in British Columbia - The Historical Sources" BC Studies No. 23 (Fall 1974):25-33
- 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
- Westbridge, Anthony R. Canadian Art Sales Index Vancouver: Westbridge Publications Ltd., 1995
- Westbridge, Anthony R. The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction Vancouver: Westbridge Publications, 2001
- Williams, Carol Jane. Framing the West: Race, Gender and the Photographic "Frontier" on the Northwest Coast, 1858-1912 Rutgers: State University of New Jersey, 1999
