Helen McNicoll, Marketplace, 1910 Oil on canvas, 63.8 x 77.3 cm, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario
This crowd scene is different from the majority of the artist’s work. Usually McNicoll featured only one or two figures and very few of her canvases depict urban subjects. Female Impressionists were restricted in their access to city streets and open spaces, much more so than their male colleagues, and McNicoll’s fellow Canadian Impressionists showed little interest in the preferred urban scenes of their French peers. In Marketplace, McNicoll’s unique approach to painting prevails.
This Spotlight is excerpted from Helen McNicoll: Life & Work by Samantha Burton.
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