Bring a piece of Canadian art history home
To mark the City of Oshawa’s centennial in 2024, the RMG is offering a unique opportunity to own an original print by Isabel McLaughlin (1903-2002). Isabel made a significant donation of artworks from her personal collection to the RMG including limited editions of Growth Forms and Into the Now, her intent was for the prints specifically to benefit the RMG and further its vision.
Isabel McLaughlin, an acclaimed and highly educated artist influenced by the Group of Seven, is considered one of Canada’s most important modernist painters. Her work is characterized by an extraordinary ability to design, transforming nature into art by relying on pattern.
As part of our annual giving campaign this year, you can bring one of these pieces home.
Growth Forms
Date: Plate was completed in 1930 and printed in 1998
Medium: woodcut
Measurements: 24.1 x 28.9 cm (paper size), 11.8 x 16.6 (image size)
$500 (includes a $300 tax receipt)
Into the Now
Date: Plate was completed in 1930 and printed in 1998
Medium: linocut
Measurements: 24.1 x 28.9 cm (paper size), 11.8 x 16.6 (image size)
$500 (includes a $300 tax receipt)
Details about the prints:
- Comes with letter of authenticity and indicates edition number
- Each print is a full series of 100
- Measurements: 24.1 x 28.9 cm (paper size), 11.8 x 16.6 (image size)
- Pamphlet with an essay by Joan Murray about Isabel McLaughlin
- 10% discount on framing at Frame by Design
$500 (includes a $300 tax receipt)
Prints can be shipped at an additional cost depending on your location. After your purchase, a member of RMG staff will reach out to you directly and confirm when your print is ready for pick up, or if delivery is selected, will liaise directly about shipping costs.
Frame by Design in Whitby has generously offered a 10% discount on the framing of these prints. A discount card will be included in your package.
About Isabel McLaughlin
Isabel McLaughlin was born in Oshawa, in the early years calling the Parkwood Estate home and later lived in Toronto. She was the third daughter of Colonel Robert Samuel McLaughlin, the president of General Motors of Canada from 1918 to 1945. Counted among her friends were fellow artists Alexandra Luke (married to her cousin Ewart McLaughlin) Yvonne McKague Housser, Lawren Harris and writer Timothy Findlay.
McLaughlin was highly educated; studying in Paris (1921-1924), at the Ontario College of Art (1925-1927) where she studied under Arthur Lismer, at the Arts Student’s League in Toronto (1927-1928), and at the Scandinavian Academy in Paris (1929-1930). She was influenced by the Group of Seven and was invited to contribute to a number of their exhibitions. In 1933, McLaughlin became a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters, an artistic group which was founded after the Group of Seven had been disbanded and became the president from 1937 to 1944. Furthermore, McLaughlin was also a member of the Ontario Society of Artists from 1963 onwards.
Isabel McLaughlin made a substantial donation of artwork from her own personal collection of works by other prominent Canadian artists of the 20th century to The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, as well as books to the RMG Library and substantial monetary donations for building expansion and exhibition programming. Canadian art history has been greatly influenced by her generous gifts of papers and books to The Robert McLaughlin Gallery and Queen’s University Archives, Kingston. Her philanthropy and patronage were not limited to the arts and among the many honours she received throughout her extraordinary life are the Order of Canada and Order of Ontario.