Artist Information
Artist
Ina Duncan Dewar Uhthoff, FRSA (1889-1971)Role
ArtistDate made
circa 1940Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Kirn, Scotland, Ina D.D. Uhthoff was an accomplished Canadian painter and educator who was instrumental in helping to establish and grow the arts community in Victoria, B.C. Raised in a wealthy Glaswegian family, she was a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, actively exhibiting before her move to Canada, first to Vancouver and then the Kootenays. She returned to Glasgow to study for her teachers certificate while her husband went to the front lines in World War I. In 1923, she returned to the Kootenays as a pioneer homesteader, and in 1925 moved to Victoria.
On the Island, Uhthoff established a teaching studio, and was introduced with Emily Carr (1871-1945) to non-objective art by Seattle artist Mark Tobey (1890-1976). In 1937 she founded and was the principal of the Victoria School of Art, and while the school was forced to close at the onset of World War II, she continued to offer private art lessons until 1951. In 1945 she took on the responsibility of running The Little Centre, a small public gallery that later moved and re-opened as the Arts Centre of Greater Victoria. In 1951 the gallery received the gift of the Spencer Mansion on Moss Street and this building would become the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Uhthoff was key to these developments, and was active on the gallery board and Exhibitions and Accessions Committee. Her "Sunflowers" was the first painting acquired for the permanent collection of the gallery. She also wrote a regular art criticism column for "The British Colonist" newspaper.
Uhthoff was best known for her portraits and her oil and watercolour landscapes; however, she did endorse more Abstract art forms. She was a member of the Island Arts and Crafts Society, exhibiting from 1925 to 1947. She was a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and also showed with the British Columbia Society of Artists and at the Art Gallery of Victoria. She died in Carleton Place, Ontario at age 82, and was buried in Victoria. Her legacy is significant, not only her own large artistic oeuvre, but the Victoria Art School and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria are pillars of the city's art community and beyond.
For further information see -
Christine Johnson-Dean, “The Life and Art of Ina D.D. Uhthoff” (Salt Spring Island, B.C.: Mother Tongue Publishing, 2012), available in the UCBC Library.
