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Artist Database
AYRE, Agnes Marion
- Born
- St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, 1890
- Died
- St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, 1940
- Biography synopsis
- Agnes Marion Ayre was recognized as an important botanical artist in Newfoundland. She took art lessons at Dr. Nichols' School of Art in St. John's and was active in the Women's Franchise League, a founding member of the Historical Society and the Newfoundland Art Society. It was through Mrs. Phillip Knowling who asked Ayre to paint her wildflower collection that she developed an interest in botany. When Mrs. Knowling had to abandon her collection, Ayre continued alone becoming a knowlegable, self-taught botanist. She planned to publish a five-volume work on plants of Newfoundland; however, after completing 1,000 life-sized water colour paintings she published only one volume due to financial constraints. In 1935 she published "Wild Flowers of Newfoundland," as well as other books and pamphlets on various aspects of the province, including a guide to wild flowers in 1937. After her death her remaining work consisting of some 2,440 pressed specimens of her own plus many additional samples making a total collection of 100,000 items, and 1,876 paintings and drawings were donated to Memorial University's Department of Biology and named the Agnes Marion Ayre Herbarium.
- Memberships
- Newfoundland Society of Art
- File & Archive locations
- National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
- Memorial University of Newfoundland - Archives and Special Collections Division
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- Brassard. Keynote Address and Notes on Newfoundland Botanists: Contributions from the 15th Annual Meeting, St. John's, August, 1978. Waterloo, Ontario: Canadian Botanical Association, 1980
- Huneault, Kristina. I'm Not Myself at All: Women, Art, and Subjectivity in Canada Montreal; Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2018
- Lush Gail Ruby Shirlene. Newfoundland Women Pioneering Careers in Science 1880 to 1949. St John's Newfoundland: Memorial University. MA thesis, 1999
- Marian, Frances White. The Finest Kind : Voices of Newfoundland and Labrador Women. St. John's Newfoundland: Creative, 1992
- Maunder, John. "Agnes Marion Ayre - Citizen Scholar." Sarracenia 21.3 (Fall 2015): 21-23
http://www.wildflowersocietynl.ca/page9/files/Sarracenia_Vol_21-3.pdf - Scott, Peter. "Agnes Marion Ayre." Sarracenia. 2: 4 (Summer 1992): 6-7
http://www.wildflowersocietynl.ca/page9/files/Sarracenia_Vol_2-4.pdf - St. John's Local Council of Women. Remarkable Women of Newfoundland and Labrador. St. John's Newfoundland: Valhalla Press, 1976
Writings by- Ayre, Agnes Marion. Newfoundland Names. St. John's, Newfoundland]: publisher not identified, 1939
- Ayre, Agnes Marion. Wildflowers of Newfoundland (part 3). St. John's Newfoundland: self published., 1935
http://collections.mun.ca/digital/collection/cns/id/24166 - Ayre, Agnes Marion, Pickavance, Roger, & Agnes Marion Murphy. Agnes Ayre's Notebook: Recipes from Old St. John's. Portugal Cove-St. Philip's, Newfoundland: Boulder Publications, 2018
Full text pdfs of exhibition reviews- Royal Canadian Academy Annual Exhibition: (Montreal, November 18, 1937) "Royal Canadian Academy Show is Opened at Art Association. Portraiture Represented by Good Examples and Landscapes as Usual Predominate." Gazette (Montreal) November 19, 1937. p.12. Full-text pdf
