The Sketchbooks of Helen McNicoll

Take a closer look at a selection of McNicoll’s sketchbooks from the AGO’s permanent collection.
Gift of Jane and John McNicoll, 2002
(running time: 6 min.)
Rowney & Co. Sketchbook
1899-1900
graphite on wove paper
2002/9434
Graphic Sketchbook
1902
graphite, black pencil, and charcoal on wove paper
2002/9436
Sketchbook Fragment
around 1902
graphite and conté on laid paper
2002/9439
Gower Sketchbook
1903-1904
graphite, charcoal, watercolour, and black pencil on wove paper
2002/9441
Lanham Sketchbook
around 1905
graphite and black pencil on wove paper
2002/9442
Sherriff Sketchbook
1907-1908
graphite and charcoal on laid paper
2002/9443
Smith Sketchbook
around 1910
graphite on artist’s paper
2002/9445
This groundbreaking exhibition brings together for the first time the work of two extraordinary women Impressionist painters, Mary Cassatt (American, 1844-1926) and Helen McNicoll (Canadian, 1879-1915). Renowned for their depictions of modern womanhood, their work had a profound impact on the development and proliferation of Impressionism in North America.
This original and eye-opening exhibition draws upon the AGO’s significant collection of McNicoll works and it is the first in Canadian history to centre Cassatt’s paintings and works on paper. Educated in Philadelphia and Montreal, Cassatt and McNicoll both left North America for Europe in their early 20s to study and pursue art professionally. Cassatt was an original member of the Impressionist movement in Paris, and a generation later, McNicoll contributed to the movement’s evolution and spread around the globe.
Curated by Caroline Shields, Curator of European Art at the AGO, and showcasing more than 65 artworks including paintings, prints and sketch books, this innovative exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated publication.