MCNICOLL, Helen Galloway - b. 1879 Toronto, d. 1915 Swanage

Canadian painter. The eldest of eight children and deaf from a childhood bout of scarlet fever, Helen McNicoll was an artist known for her plein air, Impressionist style of painting. She attended the Art Association of Montreal, studying under William Brymner (1855-1925) from 1899. In 1902 she moved to England to study in London at the Slade School and later in St Ives, Cornwall with Algernon Talmage (1871-1939).

Throughout her sojourn in England and Europe, she had continued to exhibit annually with the Royal Canadian Academy and with the Art Association of Montreal. In England she shared a studio and painting expeditions in Yorkshire and London with her close friend, British artist Dorothea Sharp (1874-1955).

A member of the Royal Society of British Artists and an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, she died in Swanage, Dorset, where she had made her home, aged only thirty six.

In the Shadow of the Tent

The reception of Impressionism in Canada began about a decade later than in the US in the 1890s. Though the fashion for Canadian artists after 1890 was to study in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts or the leading private academies, it was rare for them to grapple with the technique of Impressionism. When they did, it was either a case of direct imitation of the French model, as with Helen McNicoll, or - and this applied to the majority - of briefly adopting a style as a transition to other approaches.