The uniqueness of Cann’s portrait underlines the fact that women or civilians are rare subjects for military portraiture. The majority focus on their subjects’ heroic attributes. One example in the Canadian War Museum, acquired only in 1974, portrays a British civilian heroine painted to resemble the protagonist in the celebrated Assumption of the Virgin, 1516–18, by Italian Renaissance painter Titian (1488–1576). Portrait of Mrs. Marion Patterson, G.M., c.1942, by Scottish artist Robert Sivell (1888–1958) depicts the titular Aberdeen fire warden as a saintly figure who helped save sailors trapped in the rubble of a bombed building. Sivell had studied in Italy.   In a story of Canadian war art that is dominated by male achievement, courage, and loss, it is difficult to find female perspectives on conflict, especially in official military collections. The First World War sculpture Grief, 1918, by Frances Loring (1887–1968), for example, was not cast until 1965, nearly fifty years after she sculpted it. Moreover, it is not in the Canadian War Museum but in the National Gallery of Canada. The Soldier’s Wife is also in a non-military institution: the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia accessioned it in 1974. While these works would undoubtedly round out Canadians’ understanding of conflict if they were in the Canadian War Museum, in a digital world what is important is that they are identified with conflict.   This Spotlight is excerpted from War Art in Canada: A Critical History by Laura Brandon.