The location of this work is a view toward the Montreal Museum of Fine Art’s facade of the original Sherbrooke Street building, designed by Edward & William Maxwell for the Art Association of Montreal and opened in 1912.

“Museum Girls” is an exceptional study for a large format painting in the Ottawa Art Gallery. We have written at length about Surrey’s interest in the human figure, his concern, maybe even a phobia, about traffic, cars, and the vulnerability of pedestrians as well as suggested that these crosswalks represent a zone where his pedestrians are safe from the threat of vehicles. It is notable here that the pedestrians are in fact walking against a red light and that his figure in the lime coloured dress is signalling halt to oncoming traffic.

See the entry for Place Ville Marie and the MacLean’s article“ ...a portrait of the city [of Montreal] that is also a portrait of the human condition” in 1966, by Ian Adams.