Stewart Bagnani

Stewart Bagnani (born Mary Augusta Stewart Houston; April10, 1903 – March 14, 1996) was the first head of the extension program at the Art Gallery of Toronto, Canada, (now the Art Gallery of Ontario) for twelve years. She also lectured in art history.

Early life and education Born in Toronto of a prominent family, she was the daughter of Stewart Fielde Houston (1868–1910), manager of Massey Hall in Toronto and first editor of the Financial Post and Augusta Louise Beverley (Robinson) Houston (1859–1935), a professional singer, daughter of Mary Jane (Hagerman) Robinson (1823–1892) and John Beverley Robinson (1821–1896), mayor of Toronto (1856), member of the House of Commons in Ottawa (1872–1880) and Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (1880–1887). Bagnani's great-grandfather was Sir John Beverley Robinson (1791–1863), Chief Justice of Canada West (now Ontario) from 1829 to 1862.

Bagnani went to school in England and to Bishop Strachan School in Toronto, then to Rome for art history. In Rome, she met Gilbert Bagnani (1900–1985), an Italian-Canadian scholar of ancient history, archaeologist, and classicist.

In the early years of their marriage, while living part of the year in Rome, she joined her husband at the excavations of the Royal Italian Archaeological Expedition in Egypt at Tebtunis in the Sahara desert, where he was field director. While at the work site, she drew and painted watercolours (now at Trent University) of workers and local customs, and of early Coptic church frescoes.

Return to Canada In 1937, Bagnani and her husband returned to Canada, and purchased a farm and house north of Port Hope, Ontario which they called Vogrie, and enlarged to provide sufficient space for their collections of 10,000 books, works of art by painters such as Luca Giordano and Mattia Preti and antiques. From 1945 to 1975, Gilbert Bagnani taught in the Greek and Roman department at the University of Toronto. They then collected works by Painters Eleven and Stewart Bagnani wrote a brief memoir about them.

Career From 1951 to 1963, Bagnani worked as head of extension at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario), Vogrie itself was bequeathed to Trent University, which sold at auction archival material and most of the Bagnani collection at Vogrie, including the Painters Eleven collection.