Prudence Heward, Rollande, 1929 Oil on canvas, 139.9 x 101.7 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Heward often painted women in rural settings. She enjoyed painting and sketching landscapes around Fernbank (Athens, Brockville), where her family had a cottage, as well as areas of rural Quebec (Knowlton, Laurentians, Eastern Townships), which she incorporated into many of her portraits of women.
It’s unclear how Heward and the work’s sitter Rollande came to know each other. The subject is depicted with a tight mouth and angled eyebrows, giving her an intense, even angry, appearance: Heward established a pattern of illustrating solitary women as modern, self-contained subjects.
This Spotlight is excerpted from Prudence Heward: Life & Work by Julia Skelly.
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