Gallery Gevik, Toronto
Galerie Valentin, Montreal
Private Collection, Montreal
Literature
Paul Duval, “Canadian Impressionism,” Toronto, 1990, page 106
Mary Evelyn Wrinch found inspiration in Toronto and its rural surroundings, particularly around Lake Bays in the Muskoka region, where she owned a summer cottage. The artist made trips to Europe in 1906 and 1912, where she encountered the works of Monet, Pissaro and Sisley. Wrinch had been specializing in miniature portraits at the time, but she was so struck by these artists that upon returning to Canada she embraced plein-air landscape painting. She later reminisced of these sojourns: “It was such a revelation being in France at that time. Coming into contact with Impressionism was like being let loose with a box of coloured candy.” The pastel palette in “Beach Scene with Children” is borrowed from that of French Impressionist artists. Wrinch’s colourful modernist approach, as demonstrated in the swimsuits and parasols filling the beach, were avant-garde and even considered extreme at the time in the first half of the twentieth century. The artist consistently looked ahead to the next step – she later gave up oil painting to experiment with linocut prints of botanical imagery.
