Stewart Bagnani (born Mary Augusta Stewart Houston; April10, 1903March 14, 1996) was the first head of the extension program at the Art Gallery of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada, (now the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...

) for twelve years. She also lectured in

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

Early life and education

Born in Toronto of a prominent family, she was the daughter of Stewart Fielde Houston (1868–1910), manager of

Massey Hall Massey Hall is a performing arts auditorium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1894, it is known for its outstanding acoustics and was the long-time hall of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Although original ...

in Toronto and first editor of the ''

Financial Post The ''Financial Post'' is a financial news website, and business section of the ''National Post'', both publications of the Postmedia Network. It started as an English Canadian business newspaper, which published from 1907 to 1998. In 1998, the ...

'' and Augusta Louise Beverley (Robinson) Houston (1859–1935), a professional singer, daughter of Mary Jane (Hagerman) Robinson (1823–1892) and

John Beverley Robinson John Beverley Robinson (February 21, 1821 – June 19, 1896) was a Canadian politician, lawyer and businessman. He was mayor of Toronto and a provincial and federal member of parliament. He was the fifth Lieutenant Governor of Ontario between ...

(1821–1896),

mayor of Toronto The mayor of Toronto is the head of Toronto City Council and chief executive officer of the Municipal government of Toronto, municipal government. The mayor is elected alongside city council every four years on the fourth Monday of October; t ...

(1856), member of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

(1872–1880) and

Lieutenant Governor of Ontario The lieutenant governor of Ontario (, in French: ''Lieutenant-gouverneur'' (if male) or ''Lieutenante-gouverneure'' (if female) ''de l'Ontario'') is the representative in Ontario of the monarch, who operates distinctly within the province but i ...

(1880–1887). Bagnani's great-grandfather was Sir John Beverley Robinson (1791–1863), Chief Justice of Canada West (now Ontario) from 1829 to 1862. Bagnani went to school in England and to

Bishop Strachan School The Bishop Strachan School (BSS) is an Anglican day and boarding school for girls in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school has approximately 950 students, including 70 boarding students, ranging from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 (approximately ...

in Toronto, then to Rome for

. In Rome, she met Gilbert Bagnani (1900–1985), an

Italian-Canadian Italian Canadians or Italo-Canadians (; ) are Canadian-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who migrated to Canada as part of the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Canada. Accordi ...

scholar of

ancient history Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian language, ...

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

, and

classicist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

. They married in Toronto in 1929. In the early years of their marriage, while living part of the year in Rome, she joined her husband at the excavations of the Royal Italian Archaeological Expedition in Egypt at

Tebtunis Tebtunis was a city and later town in Lower Egypt. The settlement was founded in approximately 1800 BCE by the Twelfth Dynasty king Amenemhat III. It was located in what is now the village of Tell Umm el-Baragat in the Faiyum Governorate. In Tebt ...

in the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

desert, where he was field director. While at the work site, she drew and painted

watercolours Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

(now at

Trent University Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Founded in 1964, the university is known for its Oxbridge college system, sma ...

) of workers and local customs, and of early

Coptic church The Coptic Orthodox Church (), also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The head of the church and the Apostolic see, See of Alexandria i ...

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es. An exhibition at the

titled ''Crocodile Mummies: Stewart and Gilbert Bagnani in 1930s Egypt'' in 2010 honoured his contribution to archaeology, her watercolours and drawings, and their friendship with the Gallery and

Return to Canada

In 1937, Bagnani and her husband returned to Canada, and purchased a farm and house north of

Port Hope, Ontario Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, about east of Toronto and west of Kingston, Ontario, Kingston. It is at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County, Onta ...

which they called Vogrie, and enlarged to provide sufficient space for their collections of 10,000 books, works of art by painters such as

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Early l ...

and

Mattia Preti Mattia Preti (24 February 1613 – 3 January 1699) was an Italian Baroque artist who worked in Italy and Malta. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Saint John. Life Born in the small town of Taverna in Calabria, Preti was called ''Il Ca ...

and antiques. From 1945 to 1975, Gilbert Bagnani taught in the Greek and Roman department at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. In the 1958, the Bagnanis commissioned a

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

for the house from Canadian artist

William Ronald William Ronald Smith (August 13, 1926 – February 9, 1998), known professionally as William Ronald, was an important Canadian painter, best known as the founder of the influential Canadian abstract art group Painters Eleven in 1953 and for his ...

(1926–1998) of

Painters Eleven Painters Eleven (also known as Painters 11) was a group of abstract artists active in Canada between 1953 and 1960. They are associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement. History Since the 1920s, artists in English Canada had been heavily i ...

, titled ''Trees''. They were the first people to collect his work. They then collected works by

and Stewart Bagnani wrote a brief memoir about them.

Career

From 1951 to 1963, Bagnani worked as head of extension at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now

), helping to develop a working relationship with the community. When Trent University in

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

, Ontario, offered her husband a position, in 1965, Bagnani gave lectures there on art history and volunteered at the university's Mackenzie Gallery. She also volunteered at

Kingston Penitentiary Kingston Penitentiary (known locally as KP and Kingston Pen) is a former maximum security prison located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, between King Street West and Lake Ontario. History Constructed from 1833 to 1834 and opened on June 1, ...

, Ontario.

Later years

After her husband died in 1985, Bagnani lived in Toronto until her death in 1996. She was buried with her husband in

Cobourg Cobourg ( ) is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Southern Ontario east of Toronto and east of Oshawa. It is the largest town in and seat of Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It is ...

, Ontario. After her husband's death in 1985, Bagnani gave the Art Gallery of Ontario the material which today composes the Gilbert and Stewart Bagnani fonds in The Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives. After Bagnani's death in 1996, Nancy Dillow, the heir to her house in Toronto, donated correspondence she found there to the

(1997 and 2000). Their art works, antiquities, furniture, books and documents were bequeathed to several institutions, including

which besides having a Gilbert and Stewart Bagnani fonds in the library and archives, opened Bagnani Hall using furniture from Vogrie in 2010. Vogrie itself was bequeathed to Trent University, which sold at auction archival material and most of the Bagnani collection at Vogrie, including the

collection.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bagnani, Stewart 1903 births 1996 deaths 20th-century Canadian women Canadian art historians Canadian expatriates in the United Kingdom Canadian expatriates in Italy Bishop Strachan School alumni Art museum people