by Katherine Meredith, Art Specialist

Cowley Abbott is proud to celebrate Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day on March 8th. We honour and recognize women’s participation in many aspects of the art world: as artists, collectors, curators, philanthropists, art patrons, teachers, and more. 

First of all, I would like to acknowledge the women who make up the majority of the fantastic team at Cowley Abbott, starting with Partner and Vice President Lydia Abbott, and my colleagues Anna Holmes, Catherine Lacroix, Nicole Plaskett, Sydney Rodrigues and Julia De Kwant. Our unique combination of expertise, professionalism, creativity and organization make the auction house excel in the industry. Lydia and Anna have also formed a women’s group of clients, professionals and colleagues in the art world, who meet regularly for exhibition tours. Last spring, Lydia and Anna hosted a panel at Cowley Abbott on the topic of women in the Canadian art industry. I look forward to being a part of this initiative as it grows further, and please contact us if you wish to be a part of this group!

I recently read a fascinating article in The New York Times that resonated with me in many ways. Entitled “Gathering Force in the Art Market: Female Collectors”, the article states that with women controlling an increasing share of global wealth, they are spending more money on art than men are. The author also notes that women are particularly thoughtful when collecting art, focusing on nurturing artists careers, or highlighting historically underrepresented artists. I have noticed firsthand that the next generation of collectors — particularly millennials, and particularly women — are driven less by speculation or “trophy names” and more by shared values, substance, and story. In Canada, this has translated into strong engagement with Indigenous and women artists who were long overlooked by the market.

The New York Times article also mentions how there is a growing presence of women on museum boards and acquisition committees, and thus are influencing exhibitions and collecting practices. Museums in Canada and abroad are showing more exhibitions devoted to women artists than they did over the last few decades. The recent exhibition Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey, was held at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and soon will be presented at the National Gallery of Canada. Cowley Abbott was a proud sponsor of the Hamilton exhibition and we were thrilled to see The Chintz Sofa again – one of the highlights of our December 2023 auction of An Important Private Collection. The show brought together dozens of works in what was described as the first major retrospective of McNicoll’s work in about a century.

Similarly, Joyce Wieland: Heart On, organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Gallery of Ontario, was the first full retrospective devoted to Wieland in nearly forty years. The exhibition assembled more than 100 works across media—painting, collage, textiles, prints, and experimental films—to show the breadth of her practice and position her as a major figure in twentieth-century art and film. Curators emphasized themes that feel particularly resonant today: feminism, national identity, social justice, and environmental awareness. 

For the past four years, Cowley Abbott has been organizing online auctions dedicated to women artists every March, due to high demand and in honour of Women’s History Month. These sales have proven to be very popular with collectors. This year, I feel we have a particularly strong selection of historical, post-war and contemporary artists in the auction, which is entitled “Celebrating Women Artists” and runs from March 10th to 24th, 2026.

A highlight of the auction is a beautiful mother and child portrait by Canadian painter Mary Alexandra Bell Eastlake (1864-1951). Although not exclusively a figure painter, the artist was known for her depictions of women and children in domestic outdoor settings, which was deemed an acceptable subject for female painters of the time. Eastlake’s paintings have drawn very strong interest in recent years, with When Spring Rides Through the Woods selling for $96,000 in this past November’s live auction, and In The Orchard setting the auction record for Eastlake in 2023, achieving a price of $168,000.

Two post-war highlights in the auction are abstract paintings by Quebec artists Marcella Maltais (1933-2018), and Lise Gervais (1933-1998). Both women emerged in the 1950s–60s Quebec art scene, following the influence of Paul-Émile Borduas and the Automatistes while developing their own personal forms of lyrical abstraction.

We are excited to have a charming embroidered crest by Joyce Wieland in the auction, entitled The White Snow Goose of Canada. It was produced in 1971 while the artist was experimenting with a wide range of materials and exploring ideas of tactility in art. Her work was deeply political, addressing nationalism, feminism, and ecology. This White Snow Goose of Canada crest brings these themes together, reflecting the artist’s interest in their interconnectedness.

Another highlight of “Celebrating Women Artists” that I would like to draw attention to is a collection of works by Anne Kahane (1924-2023), an Austrian-born Montreal sculptor known for her expressive figurative sculptures exploring themes of human suffering, resilience, and social justice. She worked during a period when women sculptors were relatively rare, and created numerous public monuments across Canada. Kahane is now recognized as an important figure in Canadian sculpture, yet she is still not widely known to the public. However, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is organizing an exhibition on her work, opening in November 2026. Cowley Abbott is excited to have four lots in our auction from the estate of Anne Kahane, including brass sculptures and colourful woodblock prints.

I invite you to browse the auction for more compelling works by Canadian women artists. It is inspiring to see the growing recognition of these artists and the many women helping to shape the future of the art world in Canada and worldwide.