Additional Images

Provenance:

Family of the artist.
A.K. Prakash and Associates, Toronto.
Private Collection, Winnipeg.

Literature:

A.K. Prakash, Independent Spirit: Early Canadian Women Artists, Richmond Hill, Ontario, 2008, pages 148-150.

Note:

In his chapter devoted to the artist, A.K. Prakash writes, “In the variety of her work and ability to convey the spirit of her vibrant inner life, Sarah Robertson ranks among the foremost members of the Montreal school of painters of the 1930s. Her approach transformed scenes of everyday life into a visual language centred on form and supported by strong design and elegant colour. It is likely that Robertson was influenced by folk art, but from it she evolved her own scaled-down version of decorative colour and simplified figures.” Barns, the recto side of this charming double-sided panel, displays effectively the traits noted by Prakash.

Apple Blossoms – Congregation of Notre Dame, the image found on the reverse of the painting, relates in subject to Mother House, Nuns of the Congregation (circa 1932), reproduced in A.K. Prakash, Independent Spirit: Early Canadian Women Artists. The author discusses the marvelous small painting, noting how this image of nuns at work in the garden, “may have embodied homage to the spiritual life that, with its forbearance and sacrifice, was in some ways similar to her own life as an artist.” Although a “shy and reticent woman”, Robertson’s works are imbued with strong colouring and rhythmic brushstrokes.