Beatrice Lennie

Beatrice Lennie
Born
Edith Beatrice Catharine Lennie

(1905-06-16)June 16, 1905
Nelson, British Columbia, Canada
DiedJune 1, 1987(1987-06-01) (aged 81)
Vancouver, B.C.
EducationVancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (1925-1929)
Known forsculptor
Lennie's Wheel of Industry (1949), at the Clydemont Centre, formerly the Vancouver Labour Temple.

Edith Beatrice Catharine Lennie (June 16, 1905 – June 1, 1987) was a Canadian painter and sculptor.[1][2] She is primarily known for her public sculptures in Vancouver, British Columbia, many of which remain in Vancouver today.[3] Lennie was more concerned with rendering an idea than with a realistic depiction of her subject.[4]

Career

In 1929, as a member of the original graduating class of the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts, Lennie was active in student affairs including founding the Pasovas Club "that aimed for the furtherance of art education". She served as its first president. The Pasovas Club met regularly at Bee Lennie's studio where they held life drawing sessions. In addition, they held regular exhibitions at the BC Art League Gallery at 649 Seymour Street and later at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Georgia Street.[5][6]

In 1933, after her studies in California, she was invited by F. H. Varley and Jock Macdonald to teach sculpture and modeling at the newly founded, and short-lived, BC Institute of the Arts. In 1950, she sculpted a frieze and reliefs for St. John's Shaughnessy Anglican Church.[7]

Lennie has a long exhibition history, including shows at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, the British Columbia Society of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Seattle.[8]

Lennie stated with regards to her public commission for the Vancouver Labour Temple (1949) that:

So many people have this Victorian idea of a woman sculptor. ...They think of women 'tiddling' with pretty little figurines and vases when actually sculptoring for a living is a hard and demanding life. I spent six months on the labor mural in the workshops of a big construction company and the union men were shocked.[9]

References

  1. ^ "Artist/Maker name "Lennie, Beatrice"". Artists in Canada. Government of Canada. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  2. ^ Yumpu.com. "Beatrice Lennie.pdf - 75 Years of Collecting - Vancouver Art Gallery". yumpu.com. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  3. ^ "Monday Monuments and Memorials – Beatrice Lennie Sculptures, Shaughnessy Hospital, Vancouver". Great War 100 Reads. 2 May 2016. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017.
  4. ^ Tippett 2017, p. 126.
  5. ^ Richardson, Letia (1987). First Class - Four Graduates from the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts, 1929. Vancouver, BC, Canada: Women in Focus. p. 14. ISBN 0-921823-03-7.
  6. ^ "British Columbia Artists". sim-publishing.com. Sim Publishing Co. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
  7. ^ "Heritage and History". St. John's Shaughnessy. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  8. ^ Clark, Michael (April 2000). "Beatrice Lennie". Visions Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. 6 (3): 6.
  9. ^ Glenn, Elinor (23 October 1954). "Sculpture by the Ton". The Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on 1 January 2020 – via Newspapers.com Free access icon.

Bibliography