Mary Evelyn Wrinch (1877–1969), was a Canadian artist who created miniature paintings,

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

s, and block prints, sometimes inspired by the

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Provi ...

landscape.Harper, J. Russell. ''Early Painters and Engravers in Canada'', Toronto: University of Toronto, 1970. She pioneered the 'Canadian style', painting landscapes with bold colours of the Algoma, Muskoka and

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

regions, in situ.Heller, Jules and Nancy Heller. ''North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Bibliographic Dictionary.'' New York: Garland Publishing, 1995. In her miniature paintings on ivory, she depicted her sitters with freshness and vitality. Her colour block prints are virtuoso examples of the medium.

Early life

Wrinch was born in 1877 in

Kirby-le-Soken Kirby-le-Soken is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Frinton and Walton, in the Tendring district of North East Essex, England, which is mainly agricultural, but increasingly residential, near Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

in England to her parents, Leonard and Elizabeth Cooper Wrinch.Mastin, Catharine, ''Mary E. Wrinch and the AGW Collection'', exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, 2012. Upon her father's passing, she emigrated at the age of eight with her mother to Bronte, Ontario, and after a trip back to England, in 1889, relocated to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Ontario. In Toronto, she attended Bishop Strachan School, a private school in the Forest Hill area, in 1889. In the 1890s, Wrinch studied with George Agnew Reid (whom she later married in 1922) along with artists Laura Muntz and Robert Holmes at the Central Ontario School of Art. Wrinch attended the School (now known as OCAD University) from 1889 to 1893, studying both printmaking and painting. She went through numerous degrees, and began graduate studies at the

Grosvenor School of Modern Art The Grosvenor School of Modern Art was a private British art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and ...

in London until 1899 under the direction of Walter Donne.Barry, Virginia G. ''Taming the Frontier: Art and Women in the Canadian West 1880–1920''. Winnipeg: The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2005 Wrinch later returned to Toronto where she again studied at the Ontario College of Art & Design with Lyall, Holmes and Reid. She later took part in two private studies, one in London, England under Alyn Williams, and another in New York under

Alice Beckington Alice Beckington (July 30, 1868 – January 4, 1942) was an American painter. Born in St. Charles, Missouri, Beckington studied art at the Art Students League of New York, where she was a pupil of J. Carroll Beckwith; she also studied for a mo ...

, before joining the Art Students’ League in New York.

Career

Wrinch was first a painter of miniatures on ivory in Toronto and then, around 1906, turned to the landscape of Muskoka and painted a sketch of a distant sawmill on a lake there during a visit to Kathleen Lizars, an author and friend. Back in Toronto, she painted a larger canvas, ''Saw Mill, Muskoka'' (Art Gallery of Ontario). She continued painting landscape, but turned to the colour linoleum print, around 1928. She served as the Art Director at Bishop Strachan School (BSS) from 1901 to 1936. While holding this position, she designed the school's chapel interior, including a large stained-glass window. Throughout her career in education and art, Wrinch was a member of many artist organizations. She was made an Associate member of 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 actively worked with 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 ...

, a professional artists association advocating for visual arts in Ontario through exhibitions and special projects. Wrinch also was a member of the

Heliconian Club The Heliconian Club of Toronto is an association of women involved in the arts and letters based in Toronto, Canada. It operates out of Heliconian Hall located in Yorkville. In existence for over 110 years, the Heliconian Club remains steadfast in ...

and 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 ...

, which are two non-profit associations that connect and promote women's participation in the arts.Kritzwiser, Kay. "Mary Wrinch Remains a Rebel at 90." ''The Globe and Mail'', October 15, 1966. Accessed March 8, 2018. Besides these groups, Wrinch was a member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour,

American Society of Miniature Painters The American Society of Miniature Painters (ASMP) was an association of miniature painters, organized in March 1899. The ten founding members of the ASMP included Virginia Richmond Reynolds, Isaac A. Josephi, William Jacob Baer, Alice Beckington ...

, Canadian Handicrafts Guild and Canadian Society of Graphic Art. Wrinch's showed at many of the important exhibitions of her day, including the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, London; and ''A Century of Canadian Art'' in 1938 at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, London, as well as annual exhibitions of the Ontario Society of Artists from 1910 to 1937. Her first commercial exhibition was at The Art Metropole (241 Yonge Street) in 1966. It was curated by former curator and dealer Jerrold Morris and included 50 of Wrinch's works alongside 50 of Mary Heister Reid’s works. Wrinch’s first public exhibition was in 1969 at the Art Gallery of Ontario and was curated by

Joan Murray Joan Murray (born August 6, 1945) is an American poet, writer, playwright and editor. She is best known for her narrative poems, particularly her book-length novel-in-verse, ''Queen of the Mist''; her collection ''Looking for the Parade'' which ...

.Miller, Muriel. ''Famous Canadian Artists''. Salt Lake City: Woodland Publishing, 1983. Little scholarship on Mary Wrinch's art exists to date. Muriel Miller originally wrote on the artist's life and career in 1940. Curator Joan Murray wrote, "Mary Wrinch: Canadian Artist," in the journal, ''Canadian Antiques Collector'', in 1969. This essay remains as the most significant and comprehensive writing on Wrinch's art along with Chris Dickman`s essay in ''The Prints of Mary Wrinch''. In 1925 and the years that followed, Wrinch frequently sketched with her husband, George Reid, in Algoma, Temagami, Bruce Peninsula and

Ottawa Valley The Ottawa Valley is the valley of the Ottawa River, along the boundary between Eastern Ontario and the Outaouais, Quebec, Canada. The valley is the transition between the Saint Lawrence Lowlands and the Canadian Shield. Because of the surroundi ...

. She ended her artistic career in 1944. In 2020, the Art Gallery of Ontario exhibited her miniature portraits and landscape prints in a show titled ''Mary Wrinch: Painted from Life".

Artwork

Wrinch worked in many artistic mediums including oil paint, watercolour, drawing and printmaking. She is best known for her linoleum block style prints. Wrinch's earliest use of black and white linoleum block prints was in 1928. By 1930, she introduced colour to her prints by using

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...

. Landscapes of Northern Ontario and florals are her most common print subjects. Her two most well-known works are ''Breaking Clouds'' (1931–1932) and ''Scarboro'' (1935–1938). Both works are colour linocut on wove paper and are found in the Canadian Prints and Drawings section of the National Gallery of Canada. Her paintings are in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario,

Museum London Museum London is an art and history museum located in London, Ontario, Canada. It is located near the forks of the Thames River. It started its operations in 1940 with London Public Library and amalgamated with London Regional Art Gallery and Lon ...

in Ontario, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery of Canada and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, among others. Curators praise the innovations, "distinct vision" and the "high-key colours and open brushwork" of her paintings.

Personal life

In 1922, Wrinch married George Agnew Reid, a Toronto-based mural painter and architect who was her teacher at the Central Ontario School of Art and afterwards her friend, as was

Mary Hiester Reid Mary Augusta Hiester Reid (10 April 1854 – 4 October 1921) was an American-born Canadian painter and teacher. She was best known as a painter of floral still lifes, some of them called "devastatingly expressive" by a contemporary author, and by ...

(1854-1921), his wife. Reid married Wrinch a year after Mary Hiester Reid died. Wrinch and Reid lived together in the

Wychwood Park Wychwood Park is a neighbourhood enclave and private community in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located west of Bathurst Street on the north side of Davenport Road, within the larger area of Bracondale Hill. It is considered part of the overall ...

area, known as an arts and crafts community because it was founded by created in 1888 as a private residential enclave for artists and businessmen by landscape artist

Marmaduke Matthews Marmaduke Matthews (29 August 1837 – 24 September 1913) was an English-Canadian painter, born in Barcheston, Warwickshire, England. Career Matthews studied watercolour painting at Oxford, England before moving to Toronto, Canada in 1860 to ...

. After 25 years of marriage to Wrinch, George Agnew Reid died in 1947. Wrinch died in Toronto in 1969 at age 90.

Record sale prices

At the Cowley Abbott Auction, Important Canadian Art (Sale 1), December 1, 2022, Lot #35, ''French Canadian Cottage'' (1926), oil on board, 10 x 12 ins (25.4 x 30.5 cms), Auction Estimate: $4,000.00 - $6,000.00, realized a price of $14,400.00.

References

External links

images of Mary E. Wrinch's paintings
at the National Gallery of Canada {{DEFAULTSORT:Wrinch, Mary E. Painters from Toronto Canadian people of English descent Canadian women painters 20th-century Canadian women artists 20th-century Canadian artists 1877 births 1969 deaths English emigrants to Canada Canadian landscape painters Canadian printmakers Bishop Strachan School alumni