Sketches of Iconic Paintings

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Expanding Kathleen’s legacy, our treasury of more than 100 sketches make their debut. Some of these rough drawings are spontaneous artistic ideas and emotional instincts of her most iconic oils. Other sketches are playful and charming, mere outlines. Yet others are doodles that many would regard as untypical. Nevertheless, each inspires historical memory and tells an authentic tale.

Kathleen’s script is suggesting the colours Sage Green and Dark Green. This looks like a sombre pilgrimage around Beaver Pond on Mount Royal. The pilgrims seem to have hymnals in their hands.

The Oratory in Montréal.

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This is the outline for Looking Up Cecile Street in Montréal circa 1933.

This bold sketch is instantly recognisable as Montréal dominated by the Oratory.

Looking up McGill College Street.

Organ grinders would have been seen on Montréal streets in the early 20th century. Long associated with itinerant beggars, child labour and immigrant remnants of society, this one captured Kathleen’s imagination – and no doubt her compassion.In oils, The Organ Grinder ranks as one of Kathleen’s most recognisable works and the inspiration for it probably comes from an iconic organ grinder usually seen outside Morgan’s department store (now the Bay) on St Catherine’s street, Montréal’s premier shopping precinct.
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Another prototype for the Organ Grinder. It looks as if it could have started out with a carriage or pram…

Barely there – but still evokes snow, winter and Québec.

The theme here is the painting with the nuns leading children to their daily lessons. They all seem to be boys. But the simplest of strokes convey such depth of emotion, place and, it seems, a moment not in winter.

The sketch above sees Kathleen clearly experimenting with different positions and poses for the lads in their short pants and peaked caps.

Birds in Branches is the sketch for a delightful finished oil painting.

This looks like another protype for the Organ Grinder but the rough squiggles still convey a sense of movement and anticipation. Don’t you love the two little parrots (?) perching atop the organ?

COWS