Artist Information
Artist
Edythe May Hembroff-Schleicher (1906-1994)Role
PainterDate made
1967Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Edythe May Hembroff-Schleicher was an accomplished Canadian artist and author born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan who moved to Victoria, B.C. at a young age. She studied at the Island Arts and Crafts Club with Margaret Kitto (1873-1925), and went on to study art in San Francisco at the California School of Fine Arts and the California School of Arts and Crafts in Oakland before going to Paris. She studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, sketching and painting in oil and watercolour and later using the technique of etching.
She first met Emily Carr (1871-1945) in 1930 and despite the 30 year age gap, the two women became close friends and took three sketching trips together. They would continue this friendship in person and later by correspondence until Carr’s death in 1945.
She exhibited in the Seattle Art Museum's annual Northwest Artists exhibitions in 1930 and 1931. She was a member and exhibited her work with the B.C. Society of Fine Arts for several years from at least 1936 until 1943. She also showed work in the B.C. Artists annual exhibitions from 1936 to 1938. She showed work at the Music and Art Foundation, Seattle, Washington, and was an exhibitor at the Salon des Independents, in Paris, France. She also exhibited work with the Island Arts and Crafts Society between 1930 and 1932, and was a member of the Victoria Sketch Club.
Hembroff-Schleicher was posted to Royal Canadian Air Force headquarters in Ottawa in 1942. During this time Hembroff-Schleicher gave up painting altogether. On her retirement and return to Victoria in 1961, she started her first book about Emily Carr, entitled “M.E.”, and later a sequel “Emily Carr, the Untold Story”. Edythe Hembroff-Schleicher died in Victoria in 1994.
For further information see -
Michelle Jacque and Ian M. Thom, “The Life and Art of Edythe Hembroff-Schleicher” (2015), available in the UCBC Library.
