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