Rita Mount (7 February 1885–22 January 1967) was a Canadian painter who was renowned for her marine scenes.

Biography

Rita Mount was born in Montreal. At the age of ten she began her artistic studies. She was trained in drawing, workshop and motif, by her cousin who had studied at the National Institute of Fine Arts with and then at the

Art Association of Montreal The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square Mile stretch of Sherbrooke Street west. The MMFA ...

with

William Brymner William Brymner, (December 14, 1855 – June 18, 1925) was a Canadian figure and landscape painter and educator. In addition to playing a key role in the development of Impressionism in Canada, Brymner taught numerous artists who became leadi ...

and

Edmond Dyonnet Edmond Dyonnet (1859-1954) was a landscape painter, portraitist, photographer and educator. He was born in France and became a naturalised Canadian. He taught numerous students in Quebec, among them A. Y. Jackson, and was an academician and secre ...

. Afterwards, she distinguished herself during summer classes offered by Maurice Cullen and won a two-year scholarship at the

, a private school and museum founded in 1860 (later, the

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square Mile stretch of Sherbrooke Street west. The MMFA ...

). Her training was enhanced by studies and stays abroad. In 1910, at the age 25, Rita Mount studied at the Atelier Delécluze and at the Cercle Internationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

in New York with

Frank DuMond Frank Vincent DuMond (August 20, 1865 – February 6, 1951) was one of the most influential teacher-painters in 20th-century America. He was an illustrator and American Impressionist painter of portraits and landscapes, and a prominent teach ...

. She also took landscape painting classes with John F. Carlson in Woodstock, New York. After graduating, she returned to Canada and opened a studio in Montreal. In search of landscape, she travelled, exploring towards the Pacific Coast (Banff in 1934, Victoria, Yellowstone Park and Wyoming in 1937) and then the Atlantic side (Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and Gaspé). She gained her reputation for her marine paintings which were the subject of a solo exhibition at the Art Association of Montreal in 1934. She was an associate member of the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria on 16 ...

(she was elected A.R.C.A. in 1938) and the Independent Art Association. Residing with her sister Marie Mount on Outremont Avenue in Montreal, she died on 22 January 1967 at the Montreal General Hospital after a short illness. She is buried at the Côte-des-Neiges Cemetery in Montreal.

Exhibitions

At the age of 18, she regularly exhibited at the salons of the

and, beginning in 1910, at the

, at the New York World's Fair in 1939, Coronation Exhibition in London, England, and British Empire Overseas Exhibition. In 1916–1917, she showed her work at the

Bibliothèque Saint-Sulpice The Society of Priests of Saint-Sulpice (; PSS), also known as the Sulpicians, is a society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men, named after the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, where it was founded. The members of the Society add th ...

, with Claire Fauteux and Berthe Lemoine. In 1958, her works were shown in a three-woman exhibition alongside Irene Shaver and Vivian Walker. Over sixty-years later the women's work was exhibited again in commemoration of International Women's Day at the marden Art Gallery, in Pointe-Claire Village, Montreal, Québec. Her work has also been on display in Continental Galleries, Watson Art Galleries, Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, and Morency Frères Ltée., all in Montreal.

Legacy

The works of Rita Mount are in the collections of the

, the

Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (), abbreviated as MNBAQ, is an art museum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The museum is located in National Battlefields Park and is a complex of four buildings. Three of them were purpose-built for ...

and the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

. At her death in 1967, her sister entrusted her archives to the

Bibliothèque nationale du Québec A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a p ...

. This material, which also includes correspondence, is one of the few collections illustrating the career of a female artist-painter in Quebec.

References

External links

* *https://www.klinkhoff.ca/artists/193-rita-mount%2C-a.r.c.a./ {{DEFAULTSORT:Mount, Rita 1885 births 1967 deaths 20th-century Canadian painters Painters from Montreal Canadian painters 20th-century Canadian women painters