Beaver Hall Group

The Beaver Hall Group was a Montreal-based circle of Canadian painters formally founded in May 1920 and named for the downtown studio at 305 Beaver Hall Hill its members shared. Trained at the Art Association of Montreal under William Brymner, its eleven men and eight women - among them A.Y. Jackson, Edwin Holgate, Randolph Hewton, Lilias Torrance Newton, Mabel May, Anne Savage, and Mabel Lockerby - pursued Jazz Age modernism in portraits, landscapes, urban scenes, and still lifes, mixing modernist and traditional approaches. Jackson, president of the group and its link to the Group of Seven, declared at the first exhibition in January 1921 that "individual expression is our chief concern." The formal association lasted three years and four exhibitions; its women kept the network alive for decades, and in 1933 helped found the Canadian Group of Painters.

Defining characteristics

• Portraits and figure studies given real psychological weight
• Jazz Age urban subjects: industry, fashion, city streets, and interiors
• Modernist simplification of form held in balance with traditional modeling
• Landscape and still life painted with confident, painterly brushwork
• Bold, decorative color and firm design, especially in the women's work

Key figures

• William Brymner (1855-1925) — Teacher at the Art Association of Montreal who trained the group's members
• A.Y. Jackson (1882-1974) — President of the group and its living link to the Group of Seven
• Prudence Heward (1896-1947) — Allied figure painter whose forceful portraits match the group's modernist aims
• Lilias Torrance Newton (1896-1980) — Founding member and one of Canada's leading portrait painters

Sources

• Beaver Hall Group - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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