A Life of Artistic Dedication
Lucy Mary Hope Jarvis was a Canadian painter, educator, and modernist. Born in Toronto, she grew up in Yarmouth, Pembroke Shore, Fredericton, and southwestern Ontario. Her formal training took place at Havergal Ladies College and the art school of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where she became committed to social realism. Throughout her career, she worked in pastels, watercolours, and oil.
Jarvis was a significant figure in the arts in New Brunswick. She served as a cataloguer and draftsman for the Royal Ontario Museum and taught at Kings Hall in Compton, Quebec, and the Provincial Normal School in Fredericton. Notably, she worked to establish an art centre in the William Brydone Jack Observatory, which remains active today as the UNB Art Centre. She served as the full-time director of the UNB Art Centre for twenty years, from 1946 until 1960, and was the director of the art department at the University of New Brunswick from 1946 to 1960.
Artistic Evolution and Legacy
In 1960, after receiving funding from the Canada Council, Jarvis traveled to Europe to study. Her time in Paris studying with André Lhote and her attendance at Oskar Kokoschka's International School of Seeing in Salzburg transformed her into a modernist. Following these studies, she established a studio at Pembroke Dyke, where she remained until her death.
Her artistic legacy is preserved in several prestigious collections, including:
Her work is represented in various media, including her 1930 piece, Mrs. Nickerson's Ducks, held by the National Gallery of Canada.
