Lilias Torrance Newton

Lilias Torrance Newton LL. D. (November 3, 1896 – January 10, 1980) was a Canadian painter and a member of the Beaver Hall Group. She was one of the more important portrait artists in Canada in the 20th century.

Early life and education Newton was born in Lachine, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal. An old sketchbook of her father's is thought to have been her early artistic inspiration. She studied at Miss Edgar's and Miss Cramp's School, where she was taught by Laura Muntz Lyall. She left school at 16 to attend classes given by William Brymner at the Art Association of Montreal, She later studied with Alfred Wolmark in London and Alexandre Jacovleff in Paris.

She was a founding member of the Beaver Hall Group and of the Canadian Group of Painters.

In 1933, at the first show of the Canadian Group of Painters, Newton's Nude in the Studio was removed from the exhibition by the board of the Art Gallery of Toronto (AGO), because it felt that the public would find it shocking since the model wore green, high-heeled shoes. These were taken as evidence that she was too naked to be a nude. The painting was bought by Alice and the Rt. Honourable Vincent Massey, Toronto and Port Hope, Ontario, In an interview, Newton said she was pleased about the rumpus over the painting because it brought her attention. As she said, "everybody I ever knew wanted to come and have a look at it!" but she also was interested in Modigliani and André Derain.

Her work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Glenbow Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Hart House at the University of Toronto, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Canadian War Museum, and other public institutions in Canada. She became an Academician in 1939 and 1973. Newton continued to paint until 1975, when she fell and broke her collarbone. Newton died at the age of 83 in Cowansville, Quebec in 1980.