Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper
Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper
1898 - 1994
CGP OSA RCA
Kathleen Daly Pepper was born in Napanee, Ontario, to Denis and Mary (Bennett) Daly in 1898. As an aspiring artist, she had excellent training, first at Toronto’s Havergal College and then at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1920. She went on to the Ontario College of Art from 1920 to 1924, where she was taught by a number of famous Canadian painters: J.E.H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, J.W. Beatty, George Reid and Fred Haines. Summer training at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière and the Parsons School of Design in Paris in 1924 and 1925 rounded this out. After studying the woodblock under René Pottier in Paris in 1925, she returned to Canada and explored the possibilities of etching in her postgraduate work in 1925 to 1926. Daly was well traveled, biking through Europe in 1924 with fellow painters Yvonne McKague (Housser) and Roselyn (Rody) Kenny. She married Canadian painter George Pepper, whom she had met earlier in Paris at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière in 1929. Her work is widely known under her maiden name, with “Kay” or “K. Daly” being the simple signature she applied to her work most often throughout her life. George shared her love of travel, and they took painting trips together from Banff to Nova Scotia, as far north as Ellesmere Island and Povungnituk in Canada’s eastern Arctic, as well as to northern Labrador and south to the Catskill Mountains in New York State. Together they built a studio cabin in Charlevoix County in the Laurentians in 1933. They would also become long-term tenants in the Studio Building in Toronto beginning in 1934, working there for 17 years.
She contributed an illustration to Dr. Marius Barbeau’s The Kingdom of the Saguenay in 1936. She was an accomplished portraitist, painting sympathetic images of the Inuit people of Labrador, the Stoney First Nations of Alberta and the Montagnais of Charlevoix. Her 1961 Royal Canadian Academy diploma piece, An Eskimo Mother, is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. Her lithographic crayon sketches of coal miners done at Canmore, Alberta record a unique moment in Canadian history. A versatile artist, she worked capably in many media including oil, watercolour, pen and ink, lithographic crayon, pastel and charcoal, and was well trained in various types of printmaking. She was a master at brilliant effects of colour and light, and used this skill in both her landscapes and her portraits to great effect. Her sense of colour rivals that of Frederick Varley, giving her works an energized, emotional charge. Her creative talents also included writing; she was the author of several articles on Canadian art, as well as a book on the life and work of James Wilson Morrice, published in 1966. She would exhibit with the Group of Seven in 1931, and had a lifelong friendship with A.Y. Jackson, a fellow tenant at the Studio Building while she and George were there. During her lifetime her work was selected for numerous prestigious exhibitions such as the British Empire Exhibition of 1936 and the Tate Gallery’s 1938 A Century of Canadian Art. She was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy, the Ontario Society of Artists and the Canadian Group of Painters. She lived a long and prolific life and died at the age of 96 in Toronto. Her work is represented in many important public collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the London Regional Art and Historical Museums, The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, the Glenbow Museum and the Vancouver Art Gallery.
HOW TO SELL
AVAILABLE WORKS
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Catskill Mountains by Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper sold for $40,950
Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper
Catskill Mountains
37 1/4 x 40 in, 94.6 x 101.6 cm
circa 1929
oil on canvas
Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000 CDN
Sold for: $40,950 CDN (premium included)
Fall 2011 - 2nd Session on Thursday, November 24, 2011
The Log Barn by Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper sold for $21,060
Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper
The Log Barn
14 1/2 x 16 3/4 in, 36.8 x 42.5 cm
oil on board
Estimate: $12,000 - $15,000 CDN
Sold for: $21,060 CDN (premium included)
Fall 2009 - 2nd Session on Thursday, November 26, 2009
Cinquieme rang, St. Hilarion by Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper sold for $19,890
Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper
Cinquieme rang, St. Hilarion
12 1/2 x 15 in, 31.7 x 38.1 cm
oil on board
Estimate: $8,000 - $10,000 CDN
Sold for: $19,890 CDN (premium included)
June 2013 - 1st Session on Thursday, June 27, 2013
Fishing Village, Peggy's Cove by Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper sold for $18,720
Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper
Fishing Village, Peggy's Cove
12 1/2 x 14 1/2 in, 31.7 x 36.8 cm
oil on board
Estimate: $12,000 - $16,000 CDN
Sold for: $18,720 CDN (premium included)
Fall 2008 - 2nd Session on Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The Log Barn by Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper sold for $11,700
Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper
The Log Barn
14 1/2 x 16 3/4 in, 36.8 x 42.5 cm
oil on board
Estimate: $12,000 - $15,000 CDN
Sold for: $11,700 CDN (premium included)
Fall 2011 - 8th Session on Thursday, November 24, 2011
Cinquième rang, St. Hilarion by Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper sold for $10,620
Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper
Cinquième rang, St. Hilarion
12 1/2 x 15 in, 31.7 x 38.1 cm
oil on board
Estimate: $8,000 - $10,000 CDN
Sold for: $10,620 CDN (premium included)
November 2016 - 10th Session on Saturday, November 26, 2016
The Log Barn by Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper sold for $10,000
Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper
The Log Barn
14 1/2 x 16 3/4 in, 36.8 x 42.5 cm
oil on board
Estimate: $8,000 - $12,000 CDN
Sold for: $10,000 CDN (premium included)
Works by the Group of Seven & Their Contemporaries on Thursday, April 24, 2025
Street in Hull by Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper sold for $8,050
Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper
Street in Hull
11 x 14 1/2 in, 27.94 x 36.83 cm
oil on panel
Estimate: $3,000 - $4,000 CDN
Sold for: $8,050 CDN (premium included)
May 2000 Fine Canadian Art on Wednesday, May 10, 2000
Mountain Forms by Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper sold for $3,438
Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper
Mountain Forms
12 x 16 in, 30.5 x 40.6 cm
oil on board
Estimate: $1,000 - $1,500 CDN
Sold for: $3,438 CDN (premium included)
Treasures from the Family of Lawren S. Harris on Thursday, November 25, 2021
Village in the Rockies by Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper sold for $3,245
Kathleen Frances Daly Pepper
Village in the Rockies
12 x 16 in, 30.5 x 40.6 cm
oil on canvas board
Estimate: $3,000 - $5,000 CDN
Sold for: $3,245 CDN (premium included)
November 2015 - 7th Session on Saturday, November 28, 2015