Bess Larkin Housser Harris (1890–1969) was a Canadian painter who participated in

Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member". It is official ...

exhibitions and was a member of the

Canadian Group of Painters The Canadian Group of Painters (CGP) was a collective of 28 painters from across Canada who came together as a group in 1933. Formation The Canadian Group of Painters succeeded the disbanded Group of Seven, whose paintings of the Canadian wilde ...

Biography

Bess Larkin was born in 1890 in Manitoba. She attended

Havergal College Havergal College is an independent day and boarding school for girls from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school was established in 1894 and named for Frances Ridley Havergal, a composer, author and humanitaria ...

in Toronto, Ontario. Bess married F. B. Housser in 1914. The two eventually divorced when Bess discovered Housser's affair with the artist Yvonne McKague, and in 1934 Bess married

Lawren Harris Lawren Stewart Harris LL. D. (October 23, 1885 – January 29, 1970) was a Canadian painter, best known as a leading member of the Group of Seven. He played a key role as a catalyst in Canadian art and as a visionary in Canadian landscape art. ...

. After her marriage to Lawren Harris the two spent time in the United States. In 1940 they moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. Harris did not have a formal art education, but she did take painting lessons from

Frederick Varley Frederick Horsman Varley (January 2, 1881 – September 8, 1969) was a member of the Canadian Group of Seven. Career Early life Varley was born in Sheffield, England, in 1881, the son of Lucy (Barstow) and Samuel James Smith Varley the 7th. He ...

. Throughout the 1920s she participated, when invited, to

shows. In 1926, Harris participated in the Wembley show in England, and in 1930 her work was shown at the

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

in Washington, DC. She was a member of the

. Harris contributed articles about art to the '' Canadian Bookman'' between 1923 and 1926. Harris died in 1969 in Vancouver.

References

External links

Bess Larkin Housser Harris images
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Bess Larkin Housser Harris images
on AskArt {{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Bess Larkin Housser 1890 births 1969 deaths 20th-century Canadian women artists 20th-century Canadian artists Canadian women painters