Emily Coonan (25 March 1885 – 23 June 1971) was a Canadian

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and

post-impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...

painter, born in the

Pointe-Saint-Charles Pointe-Saint-Charles (also known in English as Point Saint Charles, and locally as The Point, or "PSC") is a neighbourhood in the borough of Le Sud-Ouest in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Historically a working-class area, the creation of m ...

area of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. As a member of the

Beaver Hall Group The Beaver Hall Group refers to a Montreal-based group of Canadian painters who met in the late 1910s while studying art at a school run by the Art Association of Montreal. The Group is notable for its equal inclusion of men and women artists, as w ...

, Coonan mostly did figure paintings. Influenced by

William Brymner William Brymner, (December 14, 1855 – June 18, 1925) was a Canadian figure and landscape painter and educator. In addition to playing a key role in the development of Impressionism in Canada, Brymner taught numerous artists who became leadin ...

and

James Wilson Morrice James Wilson Morrice (August 10, 1865 – January 23, 1924) was one of the first Canadian landscape painters to be known internationally. He studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, France, where he lived for most of his career. James Morrice S ...

in early years and later on by work done in Europe, Coonan’s work has features that are related both to impressionism and

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

Early life

The daughter of William Coonan, a machinist for the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...

, and Mary Anne Fullerton, she was born in the

neighbourhood of

and was educated at the nearby St. Ann's Academy for Girls. Emily was encouraged to study art early on when she was enrolled in art classes at the Conseil des Arts & Manufactures around 1898, with the instructors

Edmond Dyonnet Edmond Dyonnet was a painter and photographer, born French and a naturalised Canadian. He taught numerous students in Quebec province and was an academician and secretary of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1910-1947), author of a history of t ...

, Joseph Charles Franchere, Joseph Saint-Charles, and Charles Gill. She then studied at the

Art Association of Montreal The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA; french: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, MBAM) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square ...

with

between 1901-1905. Brymner was the primary instructor for the members of the Beaver Hall Group, in which Coonan took part, and he was especially open to her exploration into the styles of impressionism and

post-expressionism Post-expressionism is a term coined by the German art critic Franz Roh to describe a variety of movements in the post-war art world which were influenced by expressionism but defined themselves through rejecting its aesthetic. Roh first used the ...

, while also supporting her development of a more modernist style.

Artistic career

Jeune fille en robe à pois - Emily Coonan

In 1907, once enrolled into the

, Coonan started exhibiting her work in the institute, where she would continue to show her work until 1933. Her first award-winning piece, ''Eva and Daisy'' (1907), was a figure study of the Coonan sisters, which won her first place in the annual Art Association of Montreal student show of 1907. In 1913, the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...

awarded her with their first travelling bursary, which was a prize that was given to the art student that exemplified the most potential to study and practice in Europe. Due to the onset of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Coonan’s trip was postponed to 1920. During her stay abroad, she started to use a stylized version of European modernism in her work and began creating landscape paintings. Once she returned to Canada in 1921, she became a member of the

. Unlike the other members of the Beaver Hall Group who were members of Montreal's Protestant upper class, Coonan was a devout

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

from a working-class background. As a member of the Beaver Hall Studios, Coonan participated in a few of the four shows that the group put on before the group went their separate ways in 1922. Coonan gained international acclaim as her piece ''Girl in Dotted Dress'' (1923) was selected to show in the British Empire Exhibition in England. She took inspiration from the French

s and

. After her instructor, Brymner, died, Coonan created and exhibited fewer works, opting out of participating in the Royal Canadian Academy’s spring exhibition and then only taking part in three more spring shows in her life. Although she continued to paint later in life, Coonan stopped participating in public exhibitions after 1933.

Late life

Coonan did not stop painting altogether after 1933, but she ceased to produce for the public sphere. Due to harsh criticism for her progressive style and the death of Brymner, her mentor, and then her father, Coonan painted only for her family and friends for the remainder of her life. Although Coonan never married and preferred to live and work in solitude, the majority of her works represented her close ones. Coonan lived in her childhood home until 1966. She died in 1971 at the age of 86 while living with her niece Patricia Coonan in Montreal.

Works

Coonan's works are included in the collection of the

Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec ( en, National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec), abbreviated as MNBAQ, is an art museum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The museum is situated in Battlefield Park and is a complex consisting of four bui ...

and the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coonan, Emily 1885 births 1971 deaths Canadian women painters Artists from Montreal 20th-century Canadian painters 20th-century Canadian women artists