Isabel McLaughlin
Isabel Grace McLaughlin, was a Canadian visual artist, patron and philanthropist. She was an early Modernist Canadian painter specializing in landscapes and still life with a strong interest in design.Life
Born in Oshawa, Ontario, McLaughlin was the third of five daughters to the founder of General Motors of Canada, President Col. Robert Samuel McLaughlin and Adelaide Mowbray McLaughlin. She studied art at the Ontario College of Art between 1926 and 1930 under Group of 7 member Arthur Lismer and Yvonne McKague Housser, the latter of whom she referred to as "remarkable".
McLaughlin studied in Paris 1929, Vienna 1930 and with Hans Hofmann ca. 1947-52. McLaughlin was to become lifelong friends with McKague Housser and the two often went on painting excursions together. In 1948 McKague Housser painted a watercolour depicting McLaughlin titled Isabel the Archaeologist, Cap Chat River.
McLaughlin became an executive member of the Heliconian Club in Toronto. In 1933 she was a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters and served as its first woman president in 1939. McLaughlin was also a member of the .
On December 1, 1987 McLaughlin made a donation of art work from her personal collection of works by other artists to The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa. Some of these artists included Prudence Heward, Louis Archambault, B. C. Binning, André Charles Biéler, Emil Bistram, Emily Carr, Paraskeva Clark, Lyonel Feininger, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Alexandra Luke, Peter Haworth, Bobs Cogill Haworth, Hans Hofmann, J. E. H. MacDonald, Anne Savage, Irene Kindness, Arthur Lismer, and Sarah Robertson among others.
McLaughlin was the recipient of the Order of Ontario in 1993 and the Order of Canada in 1997.Legacy
McLaughlin was the subject of an authorized portrait sculptures by Florence Wyle. A mid-life portrait photograph was authorized by Reva Brooks in the 1950s.
Following her death McLaughlin's archives was donated to Queen's University archives.
