The Flower, 1913

Watson Art Galleries, Montreal Private Collection, Montreal Sothebys Canada, auction, Toronto, 20 November 2006, lot 85 Loch Gallery, Calgary Private Collection, Calgary

Elizabeth Mulley, ‘Madonna/Mother/Death and Child: Laura Muntz and the Representation of Maternity’, “RACAR, XXV”, 1–2, 1998, page 89, reproduced page 89 as “A Madonna”, circa 1913

Seeking a more sophisticated artistic milieu, Laura Muntz moved to Montreal in 1909, rented a studio on Beaver Hall Square, and continued to produce commissioned portraits and to teach art at a private girls’ school. Children were a constant inspiration for the artist throughout her career, embodying both purity and innocence. “The Flower”, executed in 1913, explores the theme of motherhood. The symbol of the mother as Madonna, with a young baby and child on her lap, is a reference to both the social purity of a mother and the role of women to nurture and protect children. This was paramount to the social fabric of society during this period. In her article on Laura Muntz, Elizabeth Mulley titles this painting, “A Madonna” (location unknown), aptly describing the composition: “It portrays a contemporary-looking mother and children, who, in light of the title, may nevertheless be interpreted as the Virgin with the Christ-child and John the Baptist. Muntz’s painting implies that “a” Madonna is every happy mother.” Between 1900 and 1914, Muntz experienced a great amount of loss, with the deaths of two sisters, two brothers, her father, a sister in-law, and five of her nieces and nephews. Considering Muntz’s intimacy with loss, as well as being childless, the contemplation of motherhood and children in her oeuvre was a natural inclination. In 1915, at the age of fifty-five, Muntz married her brother-in-law, Charles Lyall, following the sudden death of her younger sister and quickly adapted to her role as stepmother to eleven children.