Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1910–1975 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
9 cm of textual records
2 photographs : b&w prints
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Frances Norma Loring, sculptor, was born in Wardner, Idaho October 14, 1887. She studied sculpture in Geneva, Munich and Paris 1901-1905. In 1905 at the Art Institute of Chicago, she met Florence Wyle with whom she subsequently shared studios in New York (1909-1912) and Toronto (1912-1966). A member in 1920 of the Ontario Society of Artists, she was a founding member (1928) of the Sculptors' Society of Canada and a chief organizer of the Federation of Canadian Artists and the National Arts Council. Among her best-known public monuments are the lion of the Queen Elizabeth Monument in Toronto (originally near the entrance to the Queen Elizabeth Way) and war memorials at St Stephen, New Brunswick and Cambridge (formerly Galt), Ontario. Frances Loring died in Newmarket, Ontario February 3, 1968. Florence Wyle, sculptor, was born in Trenton, Illinois November 24, 1881. While studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1905, she met Frances Loring, with whom she later moved to New York. Loring moved to Canada in 1912, where Wyle joined her the following year. They each produced a considerable body of work in their studio, a converted church, in Toronto. A member of the Ontario Society of Artists (1920), Wyle was the first woman sculptor to become a full member of the Royal Canadian Academy. She was also a published writer (Poems, 1958). Among her public sculptures is the relief of Edith Cavell on the grounds of the Toronto General Hospital. Florence Wyle died in Newmarket, Ontario January 13, 1968. Loring & Wyle’s works are in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian War Museum and in several public and private buildings in Ontario.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Frances Loring (1887-1968) and Florence Wyle (1881-1968) were Canadian sculptors. Frances Loring was born in Wardner, Idaho. She studied art in Europe as well as Chicago, Boston, and New York. Florence Wyle was born in Trenton, Illinois, and studied medicine at the University of Illinois and then art at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she later taught classes. She then worked in New York where she shared a studio with Frances Loring. Loring and Wyle moved to Toronto in 1912, and in 1920 bought an old church and converted it into a studio. Loring and Wyle were both active in Canadian art movements and were founding members of the Sculptors Society of Canada in 1928. Their work can be seen at the National Gallery in Ottawa, Art Gallery of Toronto, and in the streets of Toronto on such buildings as the Toronto General Hospital and Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, and on memorials in small towns in Ontario, New Brunswick and Maine.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Series comprises the 1987 accrual from Loring and Wyle estate co-executor Frances Gage, consisting of
correspondence to Loring and Wyle, estate records, a collection of clippings and a scrapbook;
correspondence to Frances Gage regarding sculptures or biographical information; letters from coexecutor
David Ongley; and posthumous tributes.
Series includes business records from the Pollock Gallery (Toronto), Kristiania Kunst &
Metalstøberi (Oslo, Norway) and Roman Bronze Works (Corona, N.Y.), as well as the 1998 accrual of
correspondence to Sophia Hungerford (1963–1964) regarding a fund for the purchase of Loring and Wyle
sculptures.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English