Artwork by Marion Hope Nelson Hooker,  Old Fire Place

Marion H.N. Hooker
Old Fire Place

oil on canvas
signed lower left; signed and dated 1906 lower right; inscribed “No. 39 Deserted Fireplace Dawn painted by Marion Nelson Hooker” on label on the reverse; partial R.C.A. label present on reverse of framing
10 x 12.5 ins ( 25.4 x 31.8 cms )

Auction Estimate: $600.00$400.00 - $600.00

Price Realized $1,680.00
Sale date: February 1st 2022

Provenance:
Private Collection, Ontario
Exhibited:
Royal Canadian Academy, November 29, 1912, Victoria Memorial Museum, Ottawa, no. 250 as “Old Fire Place”
Literature:
Mary Jo Hughes, “Marion Nelson Hooker, Two Lives - One Passion”, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, 1999, no. 29, pages 53-58 for a similar work of c. 1904
“Old Fire Place” was painted after Marion Nelson married Frank Nelson in 1907 and moved from St. Catharines, Ontario, to Selkirk, Manitoba. Eager to re-launch her career, Nelson lost no time re-establishing her presence in the societies by exhibiting with the Royal Canadian Academy and the Ontario Society of Artists. Likely this scene records a fire place in a pioneer log cabin, one that she would have discovered still existed in the region when she arrived, but she explored the subject using a format already familiar to her. However, the crispness of visualization and clarity of light speaks of a new power in her handling of paint.

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Marion Hope Nelson Hooker
(1866 - 1946)

Born at Richmond, Virginia in March 1866, she came to St. Catharines, Ontario with her parents at an early age. Educated locally, she pieced together an art education over the years, studying at Toronto, Buffalo, and New York City. In 1902 she toured Europe, thanks to a small inheritance. Her exhibition record expanded in the early years of the century. In 1907, she married businessman Frank Hooker, a widower with several children who had been married to her best friend, and moved to Selkirk. She continued painting in Selkirk, shifting to Manitoba subjects. She also founded the Selkirk Art Club (1923) and Dickens Club. A devout Anglican, she often painted Anglican churches. She left Selkirk after the death of her husband and died at St. Catharines in 1946.

-”Memorable Manitobans: Marion Nelson Hooker (1866-1946)”, Manitoba Historical Society [online], 2019