Nora Collyer was the youngest of the ten women artists known today as the Beaver Hall Group. She shared a studio with fellow member Anne Savage at 305 Beaver Hall Hill from 1921 to 1923. Collyer studied art with William Brymner and Maurice Cullen at the Art Association of Montreal. She taught art at Trafalgar School for Girls and offered private lessons from her studio on Elm Street. Collyer primarily painted still lifes from her studio or landscapes in the vicinity of Montreal, where she would travel during the summer or on weekends.
Trafalgar Day, Place Jacques Cartier, Montreal is a rare urban painting by Collyer and holds historical significance. Nelson’s Column, an iconic monument situated in Montreal’s Place Jacques-Cartier, was erected in 1809 to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. Trafalgar Day, the annual commemoration of this historic naval battle, used to be observed in Montreal at this location. The blue berets worn by the members of the Royal Canadian Navy indicate that the ceremony depicted in the painting took place during World War II. Archival photographs suggest that she likely painted the 1942 Trafalgar Day ceremony, shortly after the Battle of Dieppe, when momentum had begun to shift in favour of the Allied Forces. This painting has never previously been offered for sale.