Yvonne McKague Housser

Yvonne McKague Housser, (1897–1996) was a Modernist Canadian painter, and a teacher.

Early life and education Yvonne McKague was born in Toronto in 1897 to Hugh Henry McKague and Louise Elliott. She studied at the Ontario College of Art (OCA), Toronto, from 1913 to 1918, with George Agnew Reid, J. W. Beatty, William Cruikshank, Robert Holmes and Emanuel Hahn.

Career Whitefish Falls in 1936. Top row: Randolph Hewton, Mr. Whittall, Charles Comfort, Yvonne McKague Housser. Middle row: Isabel McLaughlin, Gordon Webber, Bennie Hewton. Bottom row: Hal Hayden, Audrey Taylor, Prudence Heward, Rody Kenny Courtice, Mr. Macdonald. After one more year as post-graduate and assistant, Housser began teaching as assistant instructor at OCAD, then called OCA. In the 1920 OCA Prospectus, she and Edith Coombs were the only women listed on the teaching staff. In 1921–1922, Housser took a leave of absence to study in Paris, France, at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Académie Colarossi, and Académie Ranson.

In 1923, she first exhibited her work with the Royal Canadian Academy, and in 1924 with the Ontario Society of Artists of which became a member in 1928. From 1926, she showed her work in numerous solo and group shows in the Heliconian Club in Toronto, also in the Art Gallery of Toronto and in private galleries. She retired from the Ontario College of Art in 1946 but went on to teach at the Doon School of Fine Art in Kitchener and at the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto (now Toronto Metropolitan University) and elsewhere. Each mural depicts a different national or provincial park; Housser's was Sibley Provincial Park. She was the only woman artist who was asked to do a mural. and received the OCA's A. J. Casson Award for Distinguished Service in 1991.

Selected public collections Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto National Gallery of Canada McMichael Canadian Art Collection Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa

Legacy In 1998, Housser was one of the four artists in 4 Women Who Painted in the 1930s and 1940s, curated by Alicia Boutilier for the Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa.