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Artworks
David R. MorriceLac Manitou1903 - 1978Oil on hardboard17 7/8 x 15 in
45.5 x 38 cmSoldFurther images
Inscriptions
signed, 'D.Morrice' (lower left); title, inscribed & signed, 'Lac Manitou - strem [sic] at 434 ch. Lac Manitou - David Rousseau Morrice' (verso)Provenance
Private collection, Westmount, Quebec
Estate of the above
David R. Morrice was an artist within the circle of friendships of the Beaver Hall Group ladies. He was a student of Lilias Torrence Newton and Adam Sherriff Scott. David Morrice was a regular guest at the Lake Manitou, St Agathe , home of the family which until now have owned these works. The same family occasionally hosted other artists including Sarah Robetson and Ethel Seath and were patrons of Anne Savage and Kathleen Morris .
While David Morrice was a commerce student at McGill University he was a tennis player of great accomplishment, winner of intercollegiate tournaments and internationally as well. After a limited professional career in business, in the mid 1930s Morrice resumed his earlier interest in art, studying in Paris Académie Colarossi and at the Grande Chaumière (1936-37)and London Heatherley's School, London, England (1934-1936).
Come WWll Morrice had a distinguished military career, from 1940 first in the Royal Canadian Artillery and by 1944 a Major with the First Canadian Army, Western Front. He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in June of 1945 . Shortly after receiving the OBE Morrice was transferred to the Canadian Intelligence Corps, returned to Canada and retired from active service by the end of ‘45 and got back to his painting. Morrice had his first one man exhibition at Montreal’s now iconic Dominion Gallery in March of 1950 , an exhibition reviewed in the Montreal Gazette. The exhibition included a few paintings of Lake Manitou and surroundings. The review notes Morrice’s “Marked ability ‘ and his “attention to form and colour ”.
Blair Laing in Morrice: A Great Canadian Artist Rediscovered writes of a visit to the home of David Morrice’s parents’ in Montreal on Pine Avenue in about 1948 where the artist, David Morrice had a large studio. Laing notes that in the studio he had “dozens” of small sketches painted by his “Uncle Jim”. “Uncle Jim” was James Wilson Morrice who had bequeathed to his brother Arthur, David’s father, a significant number of fine J W Morrice paintings
Sources:
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Anne Newlands and Judith Parker, “MORRICE, David Rousseaux,” in A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald ( Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd.).
Blair G. Laing, Morrice : A Great Canadian Artist Rediscovered (McClelland & Stewart Ltd, 1984), p.24.
The Gazette, 4 March 1950, p.20.
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