Fonds F2077 - Isabel McLaughlin fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Isabel McLaughlin fonds

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Level of description

Fonds

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Edition statement

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Class of material specific details area

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Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 1903-2002 (Creation)
    Creator
    McLaughlin, Isabel
  • 1892-2002 (Creation)
    Creator
    McLaughlin (family)

Physical description area

Physical description

6.83 m of textual records and other material

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(1892-2002)

Biographical history

Adelaide Mowbray, school teacher, and Robert Samuel (R.S.) McLaughlin, founder of the McLaughlin Motor Car Company and the first president of General Motors Canada, married in 1898. They had five daughters: Eileen was born in 1898, followed by Mildred in 1900, Isabel in 1903, Hilda in 1905, and Eleanor in 1908. The sisters grew up at Parkwood, the family's Oshawa estate.

Name of creator

(1903-2002)

Biographical history

Isabel Grace McLaughlin (1903-2002) was an important Canadian modernist painter. She was born in Oshawa, Ontario, to Adelaide Mowbray and Robert Samuel (R.S.) McLaughlin, the founder of the McLaughlin Motor Car Company and the first president of General Motors Canada. Isabel grew up with her four sisters at Parkwood, her family's Oshawa estate. For her final year of secondary school, she moved to Montreal. Isabel then went to Paris where she studied at the Sorbonne (1920-1924) and received a Diplôme de Civílisation Français and a Certificat d’Études Françaises. After leaving Paris, Isabel moved to Toronto and studied at the Ontario College of Art (OCA) under Arthur Lismer (1925-1926). After leaving OCA, she joined the Art Students’ League and continued her studies with Lismer and Yvonne McKague. In her late twenties, Isabel traveled to Paris to study at the Scandinavian Academy (1929-1930). She returned to Toronto a year later. In 1933, Isabel helped found the Canadian Group of Painters (CGP); in 1939, she became the group’s first woman president. Isabel was also an active member of the Heliconian Club, a Toronto-based organization for women engaged in arts and letters. She developed friendships with many prominent Canadian artists, such as A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris, Prudence Heward, Gordon Webber, Alexandra Luke, Rody Kenny Courtice, Bobs Cogill Haworth, and Peter Haworth. She traveled extensively, sojourning with her friends and painting landscapes in the American Southwest, the Carribean, and throughout Canada. Isabel is an important figure in Canadian art not only because of her own painting, but also because she was an avid supporter of her fellow artists, both on the individual level and on the community level. Notable among Isabel’s acts of patronage, are her contributions to the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario. The Gallery, which is named after Isabel’s grandfather, now houses the Isabel McLaughlin Gallery, which boasts a collection of over 3,600 works of art. Despite her continued interest in art, Isabel gave up painting in the 1960s for unknown reasons. Isabel was honoured with several awards for her patronage of the arts and her activity within the art community. She was named a Fellow of the Ontario College of Art (1977), and she was a recipient of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Medal (1990), the Order of Canada for Visual Arts (1998), and the Order of Ontario (1993). Isabel McLaughlin died at her home in Toronto on November 26, 2002.

Custodial history

Scope and content

The fonds consist predominantly of correspondence, photographs, and educational records from Isabel McLaughlin's late adolescence and adulthood; however, a few letters and educational records are from Isabel's childhood in Oshawa. The collection reflects Isabel's relationship with her family and friends and her involvement in the arts community, both as a patron and as an artist. Isabel's friendship and patronage extended to many well-known Canadian artists, including A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris, Anne Savage, Arthur Lismer, Prudence Heward, Yvonne McKague Housser, and Timothy Findley. Her involvement in arts organizations, such as the Art Students' League, the Canadian Group of Painters, the Haliconian Club, and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, are also reflected in this collection. The fonds consist of the following series: Artistic activities, Cards, Correspondence, Education, Exhibition, Oshawa, Paris, Personal, and Photographs. Also included in this fonds is the sous-fonds of Robert Samuel McLaughlin. This sous-fonds contains material that Isabel had gathered together and seperated from her own records that pertained, or had belonged, to her father, R.S.McLaughlin.

Notes area

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

The R.S. McLaughlin sous-fonds was donated by Miss McLaughlin in 2001

Arrangement

Language of material

  • English
  • French

Script of material

Location of originals

2216.1
2303.37
5022.3
5078.1
F3 C1.1.003
F3 D6
F5 E11
F5 E12
SR1069
(302) Map 66.1

Availability of other formats

Restrictions on access

Open

Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

Copyright may apply.

Associated materials

R. S. McLaughlin fonds

Related materials

Accruals

No further accruals are expected

General note

Partial

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Status

Revised

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Dates of creation, revision and deletion

Description created on 2003-08-27. Last updated 19/06/2015.
Archivist(s): Heather Home, Clelia Scala

Language of description

  • English

Script of description

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Location (use this to request the file)

  • Shelf: 2216.1
  • Shelf: 2303.37
  • Shelf: 5022.3
  • Shelf: 5078.1
  • Shelf: F3 C1.1.003
  • Shelf: F5 E11
  • Shelf: F5 E12
  • Shelf: SR1069
  • Map cabinet: (302) Map 66.1
  • Shelf: F3 D6