Morrice: A great Canadian artist rediscovered

by G. Blair Laing, James Wilson Morrice

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Hugh Coverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent biography about a largely forgotten Canadian artist. Laing tells both J W Morrice’s life story and how he came to seek and purchase, when available, paintings Morrice made that had gone missing. Morrice was a man with his own personal demons (there is no in-depth enquiry in this study to seek an explanation for this) that led him first to move to Toronto to get a law degree and then to Europe to become an artist. However, while in Paris Morrice makes friends with artists and writers, picks up a mistress he cares for but never marries, and acquires a drinking habit. In January 1924, aged 58, Morrice dies from a liver ailment caused by drinking too much absinthe and whisky, beginning when was in university. He left an important body of work behind that Laing details how he sought out these works to bring as many as he could to Canada.

I first encountered Morrice at the National Gallery in Ottawa nearly 25 years ago. This book was a catalogue for a 1984 exhibition, but there was another exhibit in 2019, which I did get to see. The 90 colour plates in this book are wonderfully reproduced and, after nearly forty years, are still stunningly beautiful.