Nan Lawson Cheney

Nan Lawson Cheney (1897–1985) was a Canadian painter and medical artist at the University of British Columbia. She worked with several members of the Group of Seven.

Career Cheney was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, She studied at the Newcombe College Art School, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana (c. 1917–1918); and with Max Broedel at the School of Medical Illustration, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland (1920–1921). She then was employed as a medical illustrator at McGill University, Montreal (1921–1924).

She studied fine art with J.W. Beatty at the Ontario College of Art Summer School, Port Hope, Ontario; with Franklin Brownell, Art Associate of Ottawa (c. 1926); with Aldro T. Hibbard, Summer School of Drawing & Painting, Rockport, Massachusetts (1927); with Lilias Torrance Newton, Art Associate of Montreal (c. 1934); and with Alexandre Iacovleff, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1936). In the 1930s and 1940s, she travelled widely throughout British Columbia, painting landscapes and industrial subjects. In 1924, she married Dr. Hill Cheney.

She showed with the British Columbia Society of Fine Arts until 1950. She taught at the Banff School of Fine Arts, Alberta (1936); and taught at U.B.C., Vancouver (1951–1962). and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. She was affiliated with the British Columbia Society of Fine Arts (member in 1937); the Federation of Canadian Artists (1941); and the British Columbia Society of Artists (1950) (she was made a life member in 1957). Some of her artworks are held at the BC Archives. Nan Cheney, Portrait of Jock MacDonald, 1938. BC Archives, PDP05729.