Recently Sold:
Doris McCarthy, 1910 to 2010
Doris McCarthy was born July 7, 1910 in Calgary, Alberta and was raised in the Beach area of Toronto. She is recognized as one of Canada's foremost landscape painters and contributed to major art developments throughout the 20th century.
In 1926 she earned a scholarship to the Ontario College of Art where she was mentored by some of the premier Canadian artists of the early twentieth century, including members of the Group of Seven: Arthur Lismer, A.Y. Jackson, J.E.H. MacDonald and Lawren Harris. Doris graduated with honours in 1930 and took on a position in the newly created children’s art school at the Art Gallery of Ontario under the leadership of Arthur Lismer. She then began teaching at Toronto's Central Technical School in 1932, a position she held for 40 years.
During these years she exhibited regularly with the Ontario Society of Artists becoming it’s first woman president from 1961 to 1964. She became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Artists (1951) and the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour (1951) for which she served as President from 1956 to 1958.
Doris would continue to establish her position as one of Toronto’s foremost female landscape painter in Canada. At the time of her retirement from teaching, Doris made her first trip to the Canadian Arctic incorporating the experiments in abstraction that had occupied her through the 1960’s.
McCarthy also authored three autobiographical books: A Fool in Paradise, an Artist's Early Life (1990), The Good Wine (1991), and Ninety Years Wise (2004).
In 1998, Doris donated her beloved Scarborough home, 'Fool's Paradise', in which she lived since the 40’s, to the Ontario Heritage Trust to be maintained and used in perpetuity after her death as a retreat for developing artists, musicians and writers.
Doris had an unwavering exuberance for life. She was passionate about learning, teaching, writing, travel, nature, literature, self-discipline, spirituality, and the joy of good friends. Each day represented another opportunity for her to be grateful for the world in which she lived. While Doris did not suffer fools easily, she had numerous friends and family of varying ages, disciplines, backgrounds and interests and treated everyone as a special and unique person.
Doris McCarthy passed away peacefully on the morning of November 25, 2010, at Fool’s Paradise. She will continue to be an inspiration to countless Canadians who have recognized her as one of the most cherished interpreters of our rugged landscape.
In 1926 she earned a scholarship to the Ontario College of Art where she was mentored by some of the premier Canadian artists of the early twentieth century, including members of the Group of Seven: Arthur Lismer, A.Y. Jackson, J.E.H. MacDonald and Lawren Harris. Doris graduated with honours in 1930 and took on a position in the newly created children’s art school at the Art Gallery of Ontario under the leadership of Arthur Lismer. She then began teaching at Toronto's Central Technical School in 1932, a position she held for 40 years.
During these years she exhibited regularly with the Ontario Society of Artists becoming it’s first woman president from 1961 to 1964. She became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Artists (1951) and the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour (1951) for which she served as President from 1956 to 1958.
Doris would continue to establish her position as one of Toronto’s foremost female landscape painter in Canada. At the time of her retirement from teaching, Doris made her first trip to the Canadian Arctic incorporating the experiments in abstraction that had occupied her through the 1960’s.
McCarthy also authored three autobiographical books: A Fool in Paradise, an Artist's Early Life (1990), The Good Wine (1991), and Ninety Years Wise (2004).
In 1998, Doris donated her beloved Scarborough home, 'Fool's Paradise', in which she lived since the 40’s, to the Ontario Heritage Trust to be maintained and used in perpetuity after her death as a retreat for developing artists, musicians and writers.
Doris had an unwavering exuberance for life. She was passionate about learning, teaching, writing, travel, nature, literature, self-discipline, spirituality, and the joy of good friends. Each day represented another opportunity for her to be grateful for the world in which she lived. While Doris did not suffer fools easily, she had numerous friends and family of varying ages, disciplines, backgrounds and interests and treated everyone as a special and unique person.
Doris McCarthy passed away peacefully on the morning of November 25, 2010, at Fool’s Paradise. She will continue to be an inspiration to countless Canadians who have recognized her as one of the most cherished interpreters of our rugged landscape.