Louis Dudek in Paradise

I began writing this poem back in 2001 and completed it in 2012, and just found it in my archives. 

A winter afternoon at Mount Royal Cemetery

1)  Homage to Louis Dudek

A cold wind sweeps down

from Mount Royal
to the city below;
this bitter winter
ending with a death.
When a poet dies
a light goes out,
a bit of brilliance

is extinguished,

although poets know

no death is greater than another,

the homeless man surrounded

by plastic garbage bags,

or the former prime minister,

his body carried by a train

slowing at each station.

At the funeral, I listen to Louis' poems

being read, each reader celebrating Louis' life

with anecdotes and poems, a life

dedicated to poetry and teaching.

Louis has moved from temporal

to eternal, from flesh to word;

no more poems will be written by him,

no more meetings in restaurants

to discuss books and art and ideas.

A final grief, a final salute:

the old poet is dead,

the books are written,

the poems recited,

discussions into the evening

come to an end

and we prepare to go home.

We linger at the door

and say "Louis' life

was lived for love of others,

his poems were written out of love."

Outside the March day has turned to night,

we return to our usual lives

feeling diminished by his death

and the world seems

a lesser place.

2) that was then, this is now

The older poets

had a sense of their mission,

it was a lineage of poets,

not a competition

but a place in making

a national literature, the importance

of this in nation building;

now, the nation

is built, but we’ve

lost the propriety of things;

no one was concerned

with “award winning poets”

that was never why we wrote,

it was the obsession with writing poems,

the excitement of discovering a new poet,

and with being a community of poets;

the older poets welcomed the young;

that was when

in the whole country

we had ten or fifteen poets,

not fifteen poets times three hundred,  

not everyone writing their poems

and few reading what was written;

to be a poet was to be the exception,

not a commonplace, it was earned by writing,

not one or two poems, but a lifetime

of work, of building a body of work,

because the words came to you, not just

the mundane, but a vision in the work

an obsession for writing and love

for poetry; eccentricity (which is never

politically correct) was not despised,

it was expected; the tyranny of conformity 

had no place among poets,

it was the writing that mattered;

the courtesy of older poets to the young,

as that day, at McGill’s Arts Building,

I was a graduate student that year

in Dudek’s seminar, discussing Pound,

Yeats, Joyce and Ford Madox Ford,

that year in Louis’s office, when being

with an older poet was a privilege—

The Morrice family monument at 
Mount Royal Cemetery, including
a plaque for James Wilson Morrice

3) James Wilson Morrice

James Wilson Morrice

had to go to Paris

to be an artist

(as years later

John Glassco followed)

leaving the family mansion

(now torn down) on Redpath Street, 

a block from

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts,

where his paintings

are on permanent display— 

William Van Horn, president of the CPR,

who collected art as a hobby, told Morrice’s father

to let him study art abroad after seeing

some of the son’s paintings;

at Mount Royal Cemetery

on one side of the Morrice family’s monument,

James Wilson Morrice’s name and dates (1865-1924)

and place of burial, in Tunis; this is the man Louis Dudek said

“painted grey snow”: “he is a Canadian on his travels.

His destination is one he never reaches,

though others may reach it after him — it is Canada.”

That destination is paradise, to live with summer

year round, not in Montreal, the “Metropolis”, that Morrice rarely

visited after he left, where winter is six months of the year,

the other six divided between summer, fall and spring—

Meanwhile, the Beaver Hall artists, their studio space and gallery

located a block east of St. Patrick’s Church,

held two exhibitions, in 1921 and 1922.

And what about that forgotten Beaver Hall artist,
Darrell Morrisey? She was erased as an artist,
her work discarded by her family after her death, at age 33,

in 1930, it soon became as though she never existed;

and Morrice, the warm ocean breeze and sleeping

on a rooftop in Tunis under the stars—the choreography

of his life, and our life-long work as poets,
the vision of art, the act of creation,
the company of poets—

4) in the company of artists and poets

In the company of artists and poets:

John Cage chatting with Arnold Shöenberg

while Glenn Gould eats supper

with Bach; there’s Jackson Pollock listening

as Artie Gold reads his poem about Bucks County,

and later someone plays Charles Ives’ 2^nd Piano Concerto;

Jack Shadbolt meets Emily Carr meeting Nellie McClung

(the granddaughter poet of the better known Nellie),

and HD talks with Virginia Woolf who celebrates

her birthday with James Joyce; Yeats and Jeffers

are in their towers; Jack Kerouac and John Lennon

discuss religion and listen to “Imagine” (which Kerouac hates);

Van Gogh argues with Gauguin; Strindberg and Arthur Miller,

watch Marilyn Monroe holding down her skirt around her knees;

Charlie Chaplin’s silhouette walking into the sunset;

we’re in the eternal, art and music, we’re in Paradise,

where artists and poets create our age,

hard cover books on shelves, abstract paintings on walls,

and just last week lying awake in bed at 5 a.m.,

some kid at a university radio station (in Edmonton) 

playing jazz, Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, 

and John Coltrane, with no idea where this music came from,

only knowing that he likes what he’s listening to,

this art, that it speaks to him—

5) all art is vision (or it's just a repetition of the past)

All art is vision—

in the great museums and concert halls,

what returns us to Spirit is art,

poems sustaining us

over a lifetime,

paintings by the Great Masters

drawings on Lascaux’s

cave walls, hieroglyphics

and Inuit art,

sculpture and pottery,

movies and dance—

all the great art of civilization

returns us to God—

all art is vision

all poetry requires vision

to express the poet’s psyche,

if the soul

is filled with lies 

how can the poetry

not also lie? if the poet

censors the poem,

what is created

but a censored poem?

We try to live  

true to our vision, our journey

of truth, our journey

in Paradise—

--------------------------

Note: "Homage to Louis Dudek", a section of this poem, was first published in Eternal Conversation, a tribute to Louis Dudek. 

The politically correct CBC is destroying Canadian culture; it's time to Defund the CBC. 

Prudence Heward by Evelyn Walters

Evelyn Walters' Prudence Heward, Canadian Modernist Painter

Prudence Heward, Canadian Modernist Painter (Friesen Press, 2022) is Evelyn Walters third book on the Beaver Hall artists, this time specifically on the artist Prudence Heward. Here we have a biography of Prudence Heward (born in Montreal; 1896 - 1947), and possibly the most accomplished member of the Beaver Hall group. The book is divided into the periods of Heward's life--beginnings, the twenties, the thirties, her early passing--and she didn't have a long life, she died at age fifty in 1947. Her life was her art, there is no division between the two, so we have many of Heward's paintings in this book.

Walters discusses Heward's life including Heward's personal reflections and these are often drawn from her correspondence with her friend, Isabel McLaughlin (see Note 1 below). We also have a discussion of some of Heward's most important paintings, a list of exhibitions in which her work appeared, where she studied art, her travels, and some information on and memories of her friends and family members. There isn't any gossip in the book, no scandal, Prudence Heward is not that type of person. How did she survive financially? She received a large financial gift from her wealthy and generous uncle, Frank Percy Jones; he freed Prudence and her mother from financial insecurity and set both of them up for the rest of their lives. 

In 1930 Mrs. Heward, Prudence's mother, bought a house at 3467 Peel Street and this became the location of Prudence's studio. At that time this was a prestigious area in which to live, it was a part of the Golden Square Mile where wealthy English-speaking Montrealers lived; so, not far from Prudence's home was the Van Horne mansion, the George Stephen mansion, Baron Shaughnessy's estate that is now the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and the homes of other prominent business men and their families. These entrepreneurs were successful and wealthy, but they were also generous philanthropists; they endowed and supported many charitable and cultural organizations (including St. Mary's Hospital, orphanages, and other progressive institutions; cultural organizations they supported included the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the McCord Museum, the Mechanics Institute now known as the Atwater library, McGill University, and others). (See Note 2 below)

Heward is an example of  an artist who was wholly committed to her art, she spent her life painting and exhibiting her work. This single-mindedness is important for any artist, or poet for that matter, there are many diversions from following one's calling; but she had true grit. This is also the way of her ethnic and social class, they were fairly stoical, continued working despite hardships, and they persevered. Heward's major disadvantage was her bad health, her asthma, that ended her life at age fifty years.

All of Prudence Heward's most famous paintings are included in this book. The magnificent "At the Theatre" (1928), but also the equally powerful "Girl on a Hill" (1928), "Girl Under a Tree" (1931), "Farmer's Daughter" (1938), "Barns in Winter" (1926), and others. Some of her portraits remind me of the portraits Vincent van Gogh painted, this is perhaps a strange association; these portraits are not quite caricatures but aim to emphasize some particular quality Heward saw in her subject.   

This is an important book for both public and university libraries, and for individuals interested in the Beaver Hall artists, and interest in the group is still growing. I am very impressed by Evelyn Walter's text, the scholarship that went into research of the book, the timeline of Heward's exhibitions, the selection of Heward's paintings, and the readability of the book. As well, Friesen Press's high level of quality of book production, the weight of the paper on which the book is printed (there is no bleeding through of images from previous pages), and the excellent reproduction of Heward's paintings; it is not only very impressive but I doubt you could ask for better.  This book is a remarkable work of love for her subject, it would have made Prudence Heward proud.

Stephen Morrissey holding Evelyn Walters' new book 
on the life and art of Prudence Heward

Note 1: The Heward-McLaughlin correspondence, as part of the Isabel McLaughlin Fonds, held in the archives at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, could be a publishing opportunity for someone interested in editing these letters. It would add to our knowledge of Prudence Heward. This is not as far fetched as it might seem; the letters of other much lesser artists and poets have been published.

Note 2: I have always thought a dramatized version of the Beaver Hall artists would be popular on television--the city of Montreal as the setting, the architecture, the social milieu, and the many famous people who lived in the city; similar historical dramas have been popular, including Anne with an E, Murdoch, and Wind at My Back. Will it ever happen? Probably not considering the bias of the CBC for everything Toronto- and GTA-centric

Books on the Beaver Hall Artists

Back to the Beaver Hall artists. I highly recommend a film, available on YouTube, "By Woman's Hand"; made by the National Film Board of Canada in 1994; the film gives some of the history of Prudence Heward and two other members of the Beaver Hall group who were also Heward's friends, Anne Savage and Sarah Robertson. At 13:51 there is a photograph of William Brymner and a class of art students, some of them are future prominent members of the Beaver Hall group; included in the photograph is Darrell Morrisey, an artist I have researched since 2010.

Books that might interest you.

 

Catalogue for the 1920s Modernism in Montreal exhibit,
published by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2016

The Women of Beaver Hall, Canadian Modernist Painters by Evelyn Walters,
Dundern Press, 2005

The Beaver Hall Group and its Legacy by Evelyn Walters,
Dundurn Press, 2017

Painting Friends, The Beaver Hall Women Painters
by Barbara Meadowcroft, Vehicule Press, 1999

Periodical from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, issue 15, 2016

The Beaver Hall Artists

More photographs taken at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' 1920s Modernism in Montreal exhibition, 2015.

More on Darrell Morrisey

It isn't much but at least Darrell Morrisey (one of the "forgotten" Beaver Hall artists) now has some recognition; people know that she existed and that she was an artist. To this end, I wrote an essay on her and she was included in the Museum's 1920s Modernism in Montreal exhibit--in fact, this was a major exhibition at the Museum--and she was included in the catalogue published for the exhibition. Not much, but better than nothing. . .

From the MMFA's 2015 exhibition of the Beaver Hall artists

Bottom left, one of two extant paintings by Darrell Morrisey

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Here we are in October 2015 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts on Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal, we're visiting an exhibition of the Beaver Hall artists; this building is where the Art Association of Montreal relocated in 1913. Banners for the 1920s Modernism in Montreal exhibit hang on the outside of the original building on the north side of the street; a newer building (the Jean-Paul Desmarais Pavilion, that opened in 1991) is located directly across the street; next door to the original museum building is the Marc Bougie Pavilion, that opened in 2010; the Marc Bougie Pavilion used to be the Erskine and American (Presbyterian) United Church until it was repurposed as an exhibition space for Canadian Art and a concert hall. 

For many years I have felt that the Museum is one of the great attractions to visiting Montreal and to enjoying living here. 

Opened in December 1913, this building replaced the AAA's Phillips Square location;
it is now one of several pavilions that comprise the MMFA; the original 1913 building is now the 
Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace

  

The Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace

The Marc Bougie Pavilion, note the addition of exhibition space at the rear of the building;
this was originally the Erskine and American (Presbyterian) United Church

Interior of the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace

Interior of the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace

The Beaver Hall Artists

I began this journey, writing about Phillips Square, because the Art Association of Montreal was located on the north-east corner of the Square; I always thought that members of the Beaver Hall group of artists could easily have walked up Beaver Hall Hill to the AAA where some of them attended art classes or looked at art. The Beaver Hall group of artists are considered to be the Montreal-based equivalent of the Group of Seven artists; in fact, A.Y. Jackson was a member of both groups. That is why I began collecting photographs of Phillips Square and the original building that housed the AAM, and I began looking for historical photographs of the Beaver Hall artists' studio on Beaver Hall Hill. I was curious about the Beaver Hall artists and how they are an important part of the history of Montreal; perhaps more importantly, I like their art very much. 

Someone I wrote about, Darrell Morrisey (no relation), has a kind of curious importance; Darrell is one of several Beaver Hall artists who have been forgotten by history. In Darrell's case, we really don't know what happened to her art, whether she gave up being an artist, or someone discarded her paintings after her early death in 1930, or whether she was not prolific and her remaining paintings have disappeared over time. In 2012 I wrote an essay about Darrell Morrisey and since then she was included in the Beaver Hall artist exhibition held at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2015, she was included in their exhibition catalogue, and two of her paintings (on two sides of the same panel) and several drawings were discovered after I published my essay. She is not among the best of the Beaver Hall artists but she is an interesting story of endurance, family history, and one woman's effort to be independent. 

This old map of Montreal shows Beaver Hall Hill, St. Patrick`s Church
on an adjacent street to Beaver Hall Hill, and other locations

The arrow indicates the Beaver Hall artists`studio

The arrow indicates a building where the 
Beaver Hall artists' studio was located

This is a Google Street View of the previous image, as of October 2021, 
the relentless construction of condos and office buildings has destroyed
whatever was left of the original Beaver Hall Hill; the Beaver Hall artists' studios
were in a building to the right of the remaining building above

From Lowell's Montreal City Directory, the address of the Beaver Hall 
Group of Artists, 305 Beaver Hall Hill

Looking south on Beaver Hall Hill towards Victoria Square, 1950s

Darrell Morrisey essay on the Internet Archive

The Morrisey Family:
Darrell, TL, Syd & Clara outside Hazelbrae,
85 Churchill Avenue, Westmount

I've just posted my essay on Darrell Morrisey (no relation to me), a "lost" member of the Beaver Hall Group of artists, at the Internet Archive. Included is a postscript with photographs of two paintings by Darrell that were discovered in May 2014; these painting are, so far, the only paintings we have by her.

Home of Thomas Sydney Morrisey on Cedar Avenue, Westmount

Thomas Sydney (T.S.) Morrisey, Darrell Morrisey's older brother, lived most of his life within walking distance of his family home at 85 Church Hill Avenue, in Westmount, Quebec. Morrisey is a true war hero, he has a distinguished military career which includes spending part of World War One in Siberia. He was also a family man. These are photographs of Morrisey's home at 3275 Cedar Avenue, in Westmount, Quebec. Morrisey phoned my mother in the early 1940s regarding Morrisey family history, but we are not related to his family. Photos taken fall 2012.

Revised: 03 July 2018

Darrell Morrisey on Church Hill Avenue

May 2011

Fall 2012

    

Here is where Darrell Morrisey grew up, at 85 Church Hill Avenue in Westmount, Quebec, as it looks today. Darrell is one of the forgotten or "lost" members or of the Beaver Hall group of Montreal artists. Regrettably, none of her art seems to have survived since her death in the 1930. 

Revised: 03 July 2018

Here is a link to my essay on Darrell Morrisey, https://archive.org/details/DARRELLMORRISEYAForgottenBeaverHallArtistByStephenMorrissey

Revised: 18 January 2023

Darrell Morrisey at the Linton Apartments

Always a prestigeous address, the Linton Apartments in downtown Montreal--near the corner of Guy and Sherbrooke Street West--was home to Darrell Morrisey, one of the "forgotten" Beaver Hall Artists, in  the early years of the 20th Century.