Helen McNicoll

Helen Galloway McNicoll (14 December 1879 – 27 June 1915) was a Canadian impressionist painter. She was one of the most notable women artists in Canada in the early twentieth century and achieved considerable success during her decade-long career. McNicoll played an important role in popularizing Impressionism in Canada, at a time when it was still relatively unknown, with her lively representations of rural landscapes, intimate child subjects and modern female figures. She was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1913 and was created an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1914. In 1899 she received a scholarship from the Association for her drawing of plaster casts.

From 1902 to 1904, McNicoll moved to London to study at the Slade School of Fine Art with Philip Wilson Steer; she may have met her lifelong friend Dorothea Sharp at this time. At the school, students were encouraged to paint with a naturalistic approach using en plein air. In 1905, she continued her studies at St. Ives, Cornwall, under marine painter Julius Olsson and his associate Algernon Talmage. McNicoll then moved to England to study at St. Ives in Cornwall. In 1905, she attended Julius Olsson's School of Landscape and Marine Painting studying with Algernon Talmage.

McNicoll then began her formal art education at the Art Association of Montreal (AAM) in 1906, She was awarded the Women's Art Society Prize for the best oil painting for Under the Shadow of the Tent at the AAM in 1914.

McNicoll maintained a studio in London while she traveled around Europe from 1908 up until her death.

World War I McNicoll and Dorothea Sharp were working in France when the first World War broke out. McNicoll had written to her father saying that they "would rather be here than anywhere", but due to McNicoll's ties to the Canadian Pacific Railway through her father, she was sent home. McNicoll had contributed more than 70 works to exhibitions in both Canada and Britain. Her work would continue to be praised into the 1920s, with the Art Association of Montreal organizing a memorial exhibition of 150 of her paintings celebrating her prolific career, titled Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, November 7 – December 6, 1925. and in 2023, brought together for the first time McNicoll with Mary Cassatt in an exhibition titled Cassatt — McNicoll: Impressionists Between Worlds. The two artists were understood in a more insightful way when considered together, the AGO believed.

In 2024, the exhibition Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey which presented more than 65 paintings by the artist, including 25 from the collection of Pierre Lassonde, was held at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ). The catalogue focused on the idea of travel and its repercussions on McNicoll's work.

Notable collectors Pierre Lassonde is a major collector of art by McNicoll.