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Artworks
Kathleen M. MorrisFruit Shop, By-Ward Market, Ottawa, 1922-19291893-1986SoldInscriptions
signed, ‘K.M. Morris’ (lower right); inscribed by the artist, ‘Price: $50.00 / [indistinct writing covered by artist’s label]...Fruit Shop, Ottawa / Kathleen M. Morris / 172 O’Connor Street. / Ottawa.’ (verso), inscribed by the artist on label, ‘Fruit Shop, By-Ward Market, / Ottawa / Price $50.00 / Kathleen M. Morris / 172 O’Connor St. / Ottawa.’ (verso, upper left)Provenance
Private collection, Montreal;
By descent to the present owners.
Kathleen Morris lived in Ottawa from 1922 to 1929. Ottawa provided her with a wealth of new compositions, different from the highly urban city work she had been painting in Montreal. In the Fruit Shop, By-Ward Market, Ottawa, “Kay” excels in the confidence of brush documenting this animated scene. The activity of markets in Ottawa and Quebec City was a visual stimulation for her.
Kathleen Moir Morris has long been an artist of great interest to the Klinkhoff family. In our former gallery business, she was the subject of two retrospective exhibitions, one in 1976, which she attended herself and a second in 2003. The interest of the art market and subsequently that of the Canadian museums has developed for the most part since our family art gallery began promoting the significance of Kathleen Morris and other members of the Beaver Hall Group. The publication in 1999 of Painting Friends, the Beaver Hall Women Painters by Barbara Meadowcroft, pivotal research in part subsidized by friends of the Walter Klinkhoff Gallery was instrumental in provoking attention to their contribution to the Canadian art canon. The recent development showing continued interest is the outstanding exhibition, 1920s Modernism in Montreal: The Beaver Hall Group, an exhibition produced and toured by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Kathleen Morris paintings have been featured in the 1924 Wembley Exhibition, international exhibitions in France, London, Brazil and New York and are in the collections of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, B.C.; Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ont.; Hart House, University of Toronto, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the National Gallery of Canada and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.
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