Frances Norma Loring LL.D. (October 14, 1887– February 5, 1968) was a Canadian sculptor.

Career

Loring studied in Europe before enrolling at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, where she studied with

Lorado Taft Lorado Zadok Taft (April 29, 1860, in Elmwood, Illinois – October 30, 1936, in Chicago) was an American sculptor, writer and educator. His 1903 book, ''The History of American Sculpture,'' was the first survey of the subject and stood for decad ...

. She was a member of both the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...

and the

Ontario Society of Artists The Ontario Society of Artists (OSA) was founded in 1872. It is Canada's oldest continuously operating professional art society. When it was founded at the home of John Arthur Fraser, seven artists were present. Besides Fraser himself, Marmaduke M ...

. Later she was involved in the organization of the

Federation of Canadian Artists The Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA) is an association of artists in Canada founded in Toronto in 1941. The FCA soon had chapters across the country, and was one of the main forces behind formation of the Canada Council in 1957. After this, the ...

(1941) and the

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal i ...

(1950s). In 1960 she was the Canadian representative at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. Loring was the creator of two notable sculptures in Canada,

Queen Elizabeth Way Monument The Queen Elizabeth Way Monument, also known as the Lion Monument and as the Loring Lion, is an Art Deco monument located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 1939–1940 monument honouring Queen Elizabeth was built as a decorative marker monument f ...

(1939), located now in Toronto and a statue of

Robert Borden Sir Robert Laird Borden (June 26, 1854 – June 10, 1937) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada from 1911 to 1920. He is best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I. Borde ...

(1957), located on

Parliament Hill Parliament Hill (french: Colline du Parlement, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings, and their architectu ...

, Ottawa. Loring is closely associated with fellow sculptor

Florence Wyle Florence Wyle (November 14, 1881 – January 14, 1968) was an American-Canadian sculptor, designer and poet; a pioneer of the Canadian art scene. She practiced chiefly in Toronto, living and working with her partner Frances Loring, with whom she ...

, and they became two of the earliest prominent Canadian sculptors. The relationship between Loring and Wyle was both personal and professional and lasted for over 60 years after they first met at the

in 1905. The two women collaborated on multiple projects and both had a significant influence on Canadian art by promoting sculpture as being as important as any other art form. Loring and Wyle had moved into an abandoned church in 1920, and it served as both their home and studio. After their sculptures gained some popularity, the church became headquarters for the

Sculptors Society of Canada The Sculptors Society of Canada (SSC) promotes and exhibits contemporary Canadian sculpture. Founded by Canadian sculptors Frances Loring, Florence Wyle, Elizabeth Wyn Wood, Wood's teacher and husband Emanuel Hahn, Henri Hébert and Alfred Laliber ...

, where Loring and Wyle both considered as the founding members.

Biography

Loring was born in

Wardner, Idaho Wardner is a city in Shoshone County, Idaho, United States. Located in the Silver Valley mining region, the population was 188 at the 2010 census, down from 215 in 2000. Geography Wardner is located at (47.523164, -116.134190), at an elevation ...

on October 14, 1887 to mining engineer Frank Curtis Loring (1859-1938) and Charlotte Moore.Amy Marshall Furness and Gary Fitzgibbon
Description and Finding Aid: Frances Loring and Florence Wyle Fonds
, 2008, accessed 9 June 2014 Loring studied at multiple schools including the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Switzerland, the Academie Colarossi in Paris, the

, the

School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusett ...

in Boston, and at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

. At the Art Institute of Chicago Loring met

with whom she was to have a lifelong partnership. In 1909 Loring moved to New York City and was soon joined by Wyle. The first of the three studio homes they would share over their lives was located on

MacDougal Alley MacDougal Street is a one-way street in the Greenwich Village and SoHo neighborhoods of Manhattan, New York City. The street is bounded on the south by Prince Street and on the north by West 8th Street; its numbering begins in the south. Betw ...

, a lively artist colony in the heart of

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. Living at no. 6, a converted stable with additional living space, they sculpted well-known portrait busts of each other. In 1913, Loring and Wyle moved to Toronto, where they began being referred to as "The Girls."Rebecca Sisler, "The Girls: A Biography of Frances Loring and Florence Wyle" 1972 Clarke, Irwin & Company Both of them quickly became major forces in the city and across the country, getting major commissions during World War I and II. In Toronto they rented a studio-home that occupied the top-floor above a carpenters shop at the corner of Church and Lombard Street called Hunters Inn. Eight years later, in 1920, Frances (aged 33) and Florence (aged 39) bought "The Church" at 110 Glenrose Avenue in the Moore Park neighborhood. The

Loring-Wyle Parkette Loring-Wyle Parkette is a small plot of land, on the northeast corner of the Mount Pleasant Road and St. Clair Avenue East intersection in Toronto's Moore Park neighbourhood, dedicated to the art and memory of two famous Toronto sculptors: Fran ...

, located beside "The Church," is now home to their sculpture busts of each other. In 1928 Loring and Wyle were founding members of the

Sculptors' Society of Canada The Sculptors Society of Canada (SSC) promotes and exhibits contemporary Canadian sculpture. Founded by Canadian sculptors Frances Loring, Florence Wyle, Elizabeth Wyn Wood, Wood's teacher and husband Emanuel Hahn, Henri Hébert and Alfred Lalibe ...

with

Alfred Laliberté Alfred Laliberté (19 May 1877 – 13 January 1953) was a French-Canadian sculptor and painter based in Montreal. His output includes more than 900 sculptures in bronze, marble, wood, and plaster. Many of his sculptures depict national figures ...

Elizabeth Wyn Wood Elizabeth Winnifred Wood (October 8, 1903 – January 27, 1966), known as Elizabeth Wyn Wood, was a Canadian sculptor and advocate of art education. A notable figure in Canadian sculpture, she is primarily known for her modernist interpretation ...

, Wood's teacher and husband

Emanuel Hahn Emanuel Otto Hahn (30 May 1881 – 14 February 1957) was a German-born Canadian sculptor and coin designer. He taught and later married Elizabeth Wyn Wood. He co-founded and was the first president of the Sculptors' Society of Canada. Biograph ...

and Henri Hébert. In addition to being their studio-home, The Church became the official head office for the

and a gathering place for Toronto's artistic community. A. Y. Jackson called The Church "the most fascinating gathering place in the country" and it has been described as the closest Toronto came to having a Bohemian salon.

Robertson Davies William Robertson Davies (28 August 1913 – 2 December 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished " men of letters" ...

based characters on them and The Church in ''

The Cunning Man ''The Cunning Man'', published by McClelland and Stewart in 1994, is the last novel written by Canadian novelist Robertson Davies. ''The Cunning Man'' is the memoir of the life of a doctor, Dr. Jonathan Hullah, living in Toronto. Hullah is a ho ...

''. Loring was made a member of the

and was the chief organizer of the Federation of Canadian Artists and the Canada Council of the Arts. Her work was often exhibited by the

Women's Art Association of Canada The Women's Art Association of Canada (WAAC) is an organization founded in 1887 to promote and support women artists and craftswomen in Canada, including artists in the visual media, performance artists and writers. At one time it had almost 1,000 ...

. In 1960, works by Loring along with those of Edmund Alleyn,

Graham Coughtry Graham Coughtry (June 6, 1931January 13, 1999), was a Canadian modernist figurative painter. Biography Coughtry was born in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, on June 8, 1931. He learned to paint at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School, then attended ...

, Jean Paul Lemieux and

Albert Dumouchel Albert Dumouchel (April 15, 1916 – January 11, 1971) was a Canadian printmaker, painter and teacher. A multi-talented individual, Dumouchel also was a photographer and gifted musician. His work as an artist was largely abstract.A Dictionary of ...

represented Canada at the

Artistic career

Frances Loring created hundreds of different pieces of art in a large variety of materials, including public monuments, sculptures and memorials during the First World War, war memorials after the war, architectural sculptures, portraits, and

garden sculpture The predominant garden types in the ancient world were domestic gardens and sacred gardens. Sculpture of gods and kings were placed in temple compounds, along with sacred lakes and sacred groves. It is not known whether statues were placed in Gree ...

s. Commissions included those by the Canadian War Memorial Fund and the

City of Toronto government The municipal government of Toronto ( incorporated as the City of Toronto) is the local government responsible for administering the city of Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a rec ...

to create sculptures of women on the Canadian home front. For the

, a monument for Queen Elizabeth and her husband,

King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...

, Loring designed and carved the lion and column, and Wyle carved the much smaller King and Queen in relief. Known as the Lion Monument and as the Loring Lion, has been located in Casimir Gzowski Park in Toronto, Ontario, since 1975. Loring also created a portrait of

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

in bronze and various war memorials in

Cambridge, Ontario Cambridge is a city in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, located at the confluence of the Grand River (Ontario), Grand and Speed River, Speed rivers. The city had a population of 138,479 as of the 2021 Canadian census, 202 ...

. In 1965, Loring and Wyle made mirroring wills that called for the creation of The Sculpture Fund, an acquisition fund for museums, galleries and places of learning to purchase sculpture. They died three weeks apart in 1968. While their intention was to leave all their money from estate sales to support a new generation of Canadians sculptors by buying their sculptures and displaying them in public galleries across the country. The fund has "had a significant impact on the art of sculpture in …

anada Anada (russian: Анада; av, АнгӀада) is a rural locality (a selo) in Khidibsky Selsoviet, Tlyaratinsky District, Republic of Dagestan, Russia. The population was 49 as of 2010. Geography Anada is located 19 km north of Tlyarata ...

and continues to inspire both admirers and artists alike".

Works

File:Robert Borden, statue.jpg, Frances Loring's Sir

(1957) at

Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

File:Queen E Lion.jpg, Frances Loring's Lion sculpture at the base of the

File:Frederick Banting by Frances Loring.jpg, Head of Sir Frederick Banting - National Gallery of Canada

References

External links

Collections Canada articleCanadian Encyclopedia article

Frances Loring archival papers
at the Art Gallery of Ontario research library and archives * {{DEFAULTSORT:Loring, Frances 1887 births 1968 deaths Canadian architectural sculptors 20th-century Canadian sculptors 20th-century Canadian women artists Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American women artists Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) 20th-century Canadian LGBT people Canadian lesbian artists American lesbian artists