Katherine Wallis

Katherine Elizabeth Wallis (1861–1957) was a Canadian sculptor, a watercolor painter and poet. She traveled all over the world, observing art, studying sculpture and advancing her artistic career. Wallis is best known for bronze sculptures of animals and infants.

Biography Early life Katherine Wallis was born in 1861 outside of Peterborough, Canada West. Her parents were James Wallis, a wealthy immigrant from Ireland who owned extensive land in the Kawartha Lakes region, and Louisa Forbes. The Wallis family estate included Drishane Castle in County Cork, Ireland, as well as many other lands and houses. James Wallis built a farm on the then outskirts of Peterborough he named Merino, after the breed of sheep he raised on the farm.

Each member of the Wallis family was artistically gifted including her mother who enjoyed music and singing. Wallis role models were her mother's friends, including Catharine Parr Traill, her sister Susanna Moodie and the painter Anne Langton.

In 1914, when World War I broke out, Wallis did not continue sculpting, but focused on the war efforts as a nurse in a Canadian Hospital in Paris. Her art was meant to be exhibited at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, but due to the war, it was postponed. Once World War I ended, Wallis returned to her artistic career. In 1929, she became the first Canadian elected as the Sociétaire of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts for her sculpture La Lutte Pour la Vie. In 1920, she spent three years exhibiting works in Peterborough, Ontario, before she returned to Paris. She also spent five months in Bosnia and Greece, working in relief and water colour. She sent her works to England and within one year she exhibited her sculptures in London, Liverpool, Leeds and Glasgow. Upon her death, she bequeathed her art collection to the City of Peterborough and it is now part of the Peterborough Museum and Archives.