A visit to a client recently included a nice collection of paintings requiring art appraisal. The client's objective was to update the values of their collection for insurance coverage.
One piece from the client's collection was this lovely watercolour painting by well known historical Canadian painter Gertrude Spurr Cutts. Fully inscribed with artist's signature and entitled "Quayside St. Ives". This piece would have been executed circa 1909-1912, during the early years of her marriage to William Cutts (also a well known artist) when they were living during these years in that area of Cornwall, England.
Born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, Gertrude Spurr began her career as an artist in England, exhibiting her work with the Royal Society of British Artists and the Society of Women Artists.
In 1890, Cutts emigrated to Canada, moving to Toronto, and opened an art studio. Cutts exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. In 1900, she studied at the Art Students League of New York with George Bridgman, Birge Harrison, and John F. Carlson. She married William Cutts in 1909, and the couple spent three years painting in England.
Cutts had a diverse body of work, comprising oil and watercolour paintings and pen and ink sketches; she is perhaps best known for her rural landscape paintings. She also worked as a restorer of old or damaged paintings.
Cutts' work is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. The Gertrude Spurr Cutts fonds is at the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.
She died in Port Perry, Ontario in 1941. (ref. Wikepedia).
Alongside only a few other female artists who were able to gain recognition in the art world both domestically and internationally such as Emily Carr, Helen McNicoll, and Frances Anne Hopkins, these artists were trailblazers who played crucial roles in shaping the Canadian art scene in the 19th century and paved the way for future generations of female artists.
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