Close Looking: Mary Wrinch's Miniature Watercolours

Join Erin Stodola, Curatorial Intern, and Renée van der Avoird, Assistant Curator of Canadian Art, as they discuss historical Canadian artist Mary Wrinch’s miniature watercolours on ivory.

Mary Wrinch (1877-1969) was a prominent figure in the early Toronto, male-dominated, art scene and was among the first women in the city to make a living from her art. With luminous colour and exquisite brushwork, she expressed the modern spirit of the sitters in her portraits, who were members of the Toronto arts community. While their identities are unknown today, the women’s unique styles tell us much about feminine self-expression in the early 1900s.

This Close Looking talk accompanies Mary Wrinch: Painted From Life, the first public display of the AGO’s collection of watercolour miniature portraits by Wrinch, complemented by a selection of her linoblock prints and examples of her highly technical print-making method.