 Great Canadian Heritage Treasure |
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Return From Church - Fanny Colwill Calvert c 1905 |
Orig. wc - Size - 16" x 20" Found - Toronto, ON Orig. frame & glass |
 In a classic 19th century scene, that could have been used for a Christmas card, Fanny has shown her marvellous sense of composition in an exterior view. A frozen creek leads the eye into the picture towards a church, off to the rear from which a single person has left, already across a bridge, which leads the eye forward again, to the couple on their way home, and out the picture. The bold tree in the foreground adds a strong three-dimensional sense of space.
She has masterfully composed all her key elements into perfect placement inside an oval frame, a display format much beloved in Victorian and Edwardian Canadian parlours. It also shows a typical "Canadian" approach to exteriors - the land dominates; the figures are mere accents - but breathe real life into what could have been a static scene. |
Still Life Master: Fanny Calvert was also a superb still-life painter as the examples below show.
Art dealers pay high prices for still-life's because they are among the most popular genres of art, probably because they give the viewer a focus for the soul separate from the troublesome reminders of the cares of daily life - which is probably the same reason that painters like Fanny paint them in the first place.
| Great Canadian Heritage Treasure |
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Nasturtiums, Fanny Colwill Calvert c 1910 |
Orig. oil laid on board - Size - 13.5" x 14" Found - Toronto, ON |
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| Great Canadian Heritage Treasure |
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| Convent Roses, Fanny colwill Calvert c 1910 |
| Orig. pastel - Size - 11 x 13" Found - Toronto, ON |
| Fanny expertly switched her palette to rose, in this exquisite still life of convent roses. The close-ups, on the left show the enormous attention to detailed strokes with pencil and then crayons Fanny had to apply to bring ou the full glory of these roses on the strile blank paper. |
Postscript: The Guelph library was the highlight of the W. Frye Colwill firm of architects. Will left the scene of the library turmoil and dropped from public view for a couple of years. No wonder - in 1905 he had secretly married the dressmaker of whom Fanny had so strongly disapproved. Fanny blew up but came to accept the relationship, and had the couple over for dinner every weekend thereafter.
Will had also turned to painting. "The Assumption" which he painted in 1904, featured angels. It is said the figure on the left was a portrait of his mother Fanny - a heartfelt tribute from a son who knew that he was uniquely blessed for her unceasing constancy to him and her expanding family circle.
In 1918 Will moved to Muskoka, opened up the Clovelly Inn, and discovered that tourism was more rewarding than being an architect in a small Ontario town. Fanny followed soon after.
In 1927 Will was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue, and radium treatments would not stop the disease. He died the next year.
Fanny lived out her old age with the worst burden of all - outliving a favourite child, on whom she had invested so much time, money, effort, and psychic energy. Certainly, she must have grieved many times, that God could not be a woman.
Fanny died in 1936; she was 88, having proved that an assertive mind, ceaselessly at work on creative pursuits, is the best possible recipe for a long and healthy life span.
Her paint brush, her crayons, were stilled at last, but not her legacy...
A century after they were painted, her wonderful works of art still hang, lovingly cherished and displayed, in countless homes across southern Ontario.
| Insight Canada |
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