Out on Safari at the AGO
Exploring the work of Canada's deaf impressionist painter, Helen McNicoll
There are few things I enjoy seeing in the “wild” more than extraordinary original art.
My favourite encounters are with paintings that I’ve only read about in art history books such as the provocative and controversial "The Luncheon on the Grass" by Édouard Manet at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris or the stunning Tiffany Chapel which was easily the highlight of my trip to the Morse Museum in Orlando, Florida.
Sometimes though, the best encounters are those that you aren’t expecting. They pounce on you like a jungle cat lurking in the shadows and catch you completely by surprise. This was the case when I went to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto a week ago and had a chance to see an exhibit of two impressionist painters, Mary Cassatt and Helen McNicoll.
I’d heard of Mary Cassatt before as she is best known as one of only a handful of female painters to exhibit alongside the luminaries of the French Impressionist movement such as Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet. Like her contemporaries, she wanted to paint everyday life, but in her case, the focus was on the private lives of women and children.
Helen McNicoll had a similar focus to her paintings, but I’d honestly never heard of her before. It didn’t take long however before I found myself ignoring Cassatt’s paintings in the exhibit to get completely sucked into McNicoll’s work.
I mean… just look at that light!
Helen McNicoll was born in Toronto in 1879 and soon after moved to Montreal. She came from a privileged family and her father would eventually go on to become vice-president and director of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Her family’s wealth gave her the opportunity to make a career as an artist at a time when female professional artists were exceedingly rare. She trained at the Art Association of Montreal and then continued her education at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She would continue to train and paint in Europe and became known for her sunny rural paintings inspired by her visits to artist colonies in England and France.
What makes Nicoll’s story even more remarkable is that she was also deaf. She contracted scarlet fever at the age of two, which resulted in severe hearing loss. Little is known about this aspect of her life as her deafness is rarely discussed in contemporary reviews of her work. This distancing of her disability was extremely interesting to me as it seems to go all the way back to when she was alive.
For instance, she is not listed as being deaf in the 1901 census, but we know that she lipread and relied on friends to navigate social situations. We also know that she was privately tutored but made sketches of students at the Mackay Institution for Protestant Deaf-Mutes dating back to 1899 suggesting she participated in the school’s programming in some capacity.
While some art historians suggest that the introspective nature of the figures in her work was influenced by how her deafness separated and isolated her, I just couldn’t get over her exquisite use of sunlight and dappled shadows. In many ways, I think she improves upon her Impressionist fore-bearers in this regard and creates remarkable everyday scenes.
Sadly, Nicoll’s life was cut short at just 35 years old due to complications from diabetes and one can only imagine the stunning work she could’ve created if she’d been given more time. For myself, I’m glad for the opportunity at this chance encounter.
If you’d like to view both Cassatt’s and McNicoll’s paintings in person, this joint exhibit of their work runs until September 4, 2023, at the AGO in Toronto.