Bertha M. Ingle
(1878 - 1962)
a prolific Ontario artist who grew up in Owen Sound and lived most of her adult life in Toronto
Bio
Exhibitions
Bertha May Ingle was born April 13, 1878 in Puslinch Township, Ontario and lived her earliest years on farms in the Ontario townships of Nassagaweya and Proton. Her development as an artist began during her teenage years in Owen Sound, where there was a thriving and supportive artistic community. In about 1901, she moved to Toronto and spent most of her adult life in or near that city. Visits to Québec, British Columbia, and Santa Monica, California provided her with different environments and extended the range of her work. She painted mainly in oils and watercolours, and also made countless wonderful pencil drawings. Her primary subjects were landscapes and portraits, and she had a special affinity for portraying children. She taught art at several Schools and Colleges in the years from 1903 to 1927, and also engaged in illustrative art for magazines and catalogues. She created hundreds of paintings, drawings, and sketches during a long and productive life. She died in Toronto October 20, 1962.
I want to express so much more than just the surface effects, and they are difficult enough, you know. Can anything be much more elusive than light and movement? But I love them well enough I think never to grow tired of trying.
[1930, in a letter to a friend]
Biography in Depth
Click the icon for an illustrated biography
On Whom the Muses Smile:
Life of an Ontario Artist
by Mary E Thompson and J David Beattie
Click the icon for an account of the artist's formative Owen Sound years
Introducing Bertha May Ingle
by Mary E Thompson and J David Beattie
Click the icon for a short biographical synopsis
Bertha M. Ingle -
Devoted to Art and Family
Blog
For more information about the artist, and for an ongoing account of the exploration of her work, please visit the blog, The Art of Bertha May Ingle:
Note: A few published and online sources incorrectly identify her birthplace as Nassagaweya, and/or her place of death as Guelph.
Several sources, notably the 1934 catalogue of the Perkins Bull Collection, give her name as Bertha Maylaw Ingle. She signed a small number of pictures using that name, or sometimes simply Maylaw, but why she did so is unknown.
These are the Exhibitions for which we have records; there may have been others
Click on the highlighted links for photos of artworks and for more Exhibition information
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Click for the websites of the Galleries named below
2019 (6 July - 8 September)
Ingle's portrait of Norma Wright as a student exhibited as part of Norma Wright Cotter - Welcome Back!, Station Gallery, Whitby (Album)
2015, 2016
Two self-representational paintings exhibited in the touring exhibition
The Artist Herself: Self-Portraits by Canadian Historical Women Artists
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Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston (2 May - 9 Aug 2015)
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Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (2 Oct 2015 - 3 Jan 2016)
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Kelowna Art Gallery (23 Jan- 3 Apr 2016)
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Art Gallery of Hamilton (28 May - 11 Sep 2016)
(Album)
2015 (18 January - 15 March)
Exhibition of fourteen landscape paintings at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery (Album) and two theatrical costume paintings at the Roxy Theatre's Griffin Gallery (Album), Owen Sound
1964
Private exhibition and sale mounted by Ingle's sister (Kate), Toronto (Album)
1950s
Exhibition of portraits in Toronto, possibly at Eaton's College Street
(Album)
1934
Two paintings contributed to, and exhibited as part of, the Perkins Bull Collection: Historical Paintings by Canadian Artists, Peel County (Album)
1910 (March, November)
Painting exhibited in the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCAA), Montreal;
two paintings exhibited in the Annual Exhibition of the Ontario Society of Artists (OSA), Toronto
1909 (November)
Painting exhibited in the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCAA), Hamilton
(Album)
1906 (December)
Private View of twenty paintings at the Margaret Eaton School of Literature and Expression, Toronto (possibly a graduation exhibition for the Farquhar McGillivray Knowles Studio, of which Ingle became an Associate) (Album)
1895
Exhibited paintings and won prizes in three categories at the North Grey Fall Fair, Owen Sound
Possibly the harbour at Owen Sound c. 1900