PROVENANCE
Bess Harris's sister, Dorit Larkin
Sally Lewis, daughter of Dorit Larkin
By descent to a Private Collection, Calgary
Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 25, 2006, Lot 169
Private Collection, Victoria

LITERATURE
Sarah Milroy et al., Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, essay by Ian Thom, reproduced page 106, listed page 302

EXHIBITED
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinberg, Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment, traveling in 2021-2023 to the Glenbow Museum, Calgary; Vancouver Art Gallery; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Harris was known during her lifetime as a key member of a circle of artists and art enthusiasts who, in the early twentieth century, endeavoured to establish and define a new form of distinctly Canadian art. Harris was both a supporter of this movement, whose success is mostly associated with the much-celebrated legacy of the Group of Seven, and an active participant with her own artistic output. Her contributions to Canadian art are increasingly being recognized and appreciated, and her works reconsidered in the historical canon.

In the 1920s, Bess and her first husband, Fred Housser, were instrumental in supporting the work of the Group—as collectors, friends, fellow theosophists, and public defenders. Importantly, in addition to this work, she was an enthusiastic and talented artist in her own right. Alongside others in her Toronto circle, she was encouraged and inspired to paint, and from 1926 on, she exhibited as a regular invited contributor in the Group of Seven exhibitions. By the mid-1930s, Bess had married Lawren Harris and relocated to the United States, living in New Hampshire and then Santa Fe, before returning to Canada and settling in Vancouver in 1940.

While in her lifetime, Bess’s artistic practice often fell behind her roles as supporter and champion of the work of her husband Lawren, in recent years, new attention is being brought to her art. The Iinclusion of her work, including this canvas, in the recent monumental McMichael exhibition Uninvited has given more people the chance to appreciate and engage with her visceral, honest and creative depictions of Canada.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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