(1897-1996)

Toronto-born artist Yvonne McKague Housser studied at the Ontario College of Art before furthering her studies in art in Paris, Vienna, Taos, and Provincetown. She returned to Toronto and taught at the Ontario College of Art from 1925 until 1948. In 1923 she exhibited her work with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and in 1927 at the National Gallery of Canada. Though she was never considered a member of the Group of Seven, her works were exhibited with theirs three times between 1928 and 1931 and she is widely considered a pioneer for women artists in Canada. She was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1984 for her significant contribution to Canadian culture. Her works can be found in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the University of Toronto, and many important private collections.

“Evening, Nipigon River” (1943), one of the first Sampson-Matthews silkscreens to be released from the wartime silkscreen art program, was so popular that it went into a second edition. In this wilderness scene from the hinterland near Thunder Bay, a patient, solitary fisherman casts his line on a perfectly smooth river on a fall morning. Housser went on to produce two more images for Sampson-Matthews.