Bobs Cogill Haworth


Zema Barbara "Bobs" Cogill Haworth was a South African-born Canadian painter and potter. She practiced mainly in Toronto, living and working with her husband, painter and teacher Peter Haworth. She co-founded the Canadian Group of Painters with Yvonne McKague Housser, Isabel McLaughlin and members of the Group of Seven.

Biography

Education and training

Haworth was born in Queenston, South Africa. She studied at the Royal College of Art in London, England under Professor William Rothenstein, Dora Billington, and Eric Gill, specializing in ceramics.
She received her degree of A.R.C.A. from the University of London, England.
She immigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1923.

Private life

Haworth lived a comfortable life in the fashionable upscale district of Rosedale in Toronto. Her and Peter's residence was often a mecca for artists holding formal meetings and small exhibitions.

Career and official commissions

From 1913 - 1968 she worked as a painter in watercolour, oils, and later in acrylic. She also used standard clay for her pottery works. The majority of her works are signed "B. Cogill Haworth" or "Bobs Cogill Haworth".
Haworth preferred landscape themes and waterscape themes but also ventured practice in non-objective paintings, some on a very large scale. Most of her paintings post-1950 were created on masonite and often signed on the front and verso; often with an artist's paper label.
In 1936, Bobs Haworth was one of the founding members of the Canadian Guild of Potters along with Nunzia D'Angel and Robert Montgomery.
Howarth was the first honorary president.
Both Peter and Bobs Haworth made illustrations for Kingdom of the Saguenay by Marius Barbeau.
The Haworths also collaborated on illustrating James Edward Le Rossignol's The Habitant Merchant.

Exhibitions

Haworth was a regular and prolific exhibitor with such institutions as the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Ontario Society of Artists, Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, Canadian Group of Painters among other formal and informal art groups and organizations.

Death and legacy

Haworth died peacefully at her home in Toronto. At her bequest, she left her entire art archives and remainder of her art works to Queen's University.