Gertrude Des Clayes was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1879, she studied at the Bushey School of Art, England. She later attended the Academie Julian, in Paris. She returned to Britain and lived in London from 1909 to 1912, where she became a member of the National Portrait Society. She moved to Canada with her sister, Berthe, in 1912. Their younger sister, Alice, also an artist, joined them two years later. They settled in Montreal, setting up a studio in Beaver Hall Square, a favourite haunt of artists and architects. She lived and worked in Montreal for the next 24 years, after which time she returned to Britain. She died in London at the age of 70.
Gertrude Des Clayes worked in oils, watercolour and chalk pastels and was known principally as a portrait
painter. She painted portraits of many prominent people in Montreal in an impressionistic style. She participated in the Spring Exhibitions at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art and the Royal Canadian Academy.
Ref:
A Dictionary of Canadian Artists,Vol.1, by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks, Ottawa, Revised and expanded, 1997
