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Life drawings and studies

Series consists of undated drawings that appear to be contemporary with the notebooks in Series 1 and are consistent with the usual output of an art student. Figure studies predominate, probably originating in life drawing classes with a few drawings of specific individuals and places. A number of published plates of models and statuary are included. Four experiments with print-making are also included in this series, possibly dating from 1930 when Munn attended printmaking classes at the Art Students’ League. A file of decorative patterns and one cut stencil are also included in this series. One pattern contains a draft letter to the artist’s mother on the verso, remarking on a proposed visit to Elbert Hubbard’s Roycroft studio in East Aurora, NY (Hubbard died in 1915). A money-making scheme is mentioned in the letter, perhaps revolving around the production of these stencils. Photocopies of letters written to Kathleen Munn around this time are included (originals remain in the family). Series also contains a hand-lettered sign for a sale at Munn’s Jewelry store, undated and unsigned.

Munn, Kathleen Jean

Notebooks

Notebooks document Munn’s student life in New York City and at the Art Students League Summer School in Woodstock. She recorded her lecture notes, essays containing reviews and summaries of books read, notations regarding books of interest, sketches, anatomical drawings, copies of historical works of art, poems, and occasionally ephemera. Under the tutelage of her teachers at the Art Students League – Andrew Dasburg, Max Weber, A.S. Baylinson, Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Henry L. McFee, she embraced modernism and gained exposure to literary, artistic and musical influences of her day. The notebooks show her to be an avid reader with a keen interest in the intellectual life of her time and in the artistic expression of other cultures and epochs. There is a particular delight in pattern and an underlying search for explanation and order. On the front pastedown of Notebook No. 8 she wrote, “Perfect beauty is the expression of perfect order, balance, harmony, rhythm. Beauty is a supreme instance of order intuitively felt, instinctively appreciated”. The notebooks are undated, with the exception of No. 5.

Munn, Kathleen Jean

Drawings for "The Passion"

Series contains preparatory pencil drawings for ‘The Passion’ series. Munn commonly used both sides of her sheets of paper and the numbers given are for the number of pages. Some contain a brief notation or number. She apparently combined and rearranged the small drawings; some are pasted composites, and others contain pin-holes. Most sheets contain a single figure with variations in stance, usually involving points or dots, suggesting that she was using an angle to work out geometrical structure. The sheer quantity indicates the extraordinary effort involved in the creation of her final drawings. Series also contains 1 ink and brush drawing, and one charcoal drawing. None are dated.

Munn, Kathleen Jean

Writings

Series comprises manuscripts of a synopsis of a projected art textbook and notes and essays on art subjects by Arthur Lismer; with copies of other writings about art education.

Lismer, Arthur

Correspondence

Series comprises Arthur Lismer’s correspondence, chiefly between the 1920s to 1950s, with officials at the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa); the Children’s Art Centre at the Art Gallery of Toronto; Charles S. Band, president of the Art Gallery of Toronto; with miscellaneous active (unsent) and passive correspondence; and typed transcripts of some handwritten letters.

Lismer, Arthur

Exhibitions records

Series comprises lists of Arthur Lismer’s paintings exhibited in commercial galleries in Canada in the 1930s to 1950s, and the Art Gallery of Toronto Lismer retrospective of 1950; with correspondence regarding a planned exhibition of the work of British art students in 1922, a show of Lismer’s paintings in the Eaton’s department store in Toronto in 1946, and the 1950 Lismer retrospective.

Lismer, Arthur

Secondary sources

Series comprises a source book on Arthur Lismer written by his daughter Marjorie Lismer Bridges and screenplay materials for a National Film Board of Canada production on Lismer’s work.

Lismer, Arthur

Printed and other miscellanea

Series comprises some of Arthur Lismer’s collection of materials on teaching art to children; memorabilia from his membership in the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto including some pen sketches; offprints of articles by his friend Marius Barbeau; a published book in which Lismer drew sketches; and a commonplace book once apparently belonging to Canadian artist Charles MacDonald Manly.

Lismer, Arthur

Fashion magazine covers

Series comprises 477 magazine covers, predominantly from early 20th-century issues of fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity fair, Harper’s bazar (after Nov. 1929, Harper’s bazaar) and The delineator. Series also includes a small number of covers from general-interest periodicals such as Collier’s and The Saturday evening post, art magazines such as Shadowland, and other magazines, issued chiefly in the United States and Canada. The covers feature the art of over 80 named illustrators, chiefly American artists. Often fanciful, the images provide colourful illustration of Art Nouveau and Art Deco design in the period, primarily in women’s clothing, and include the work of prominent magazine illustrators Helen Dryden, Erté, Anne Harriet Fish, C. Coles Phillips and George Wolfe Plank. The techniques used to create the cover designs were predominantly drawing and painting, although two 1913 covers for the magazine Dress and Vanity fair are illustrated with uncredited photographs. Advertisements for automobiles, cosmetics, clothing and household products appear on verso of the covers. Some files include duplicate items or the same cover image from different editions of a magazine.

Elliott, Emily Louise (Orr)

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