Florence Carlyle

Florence Carlyle was born September 24, 1864, in Galt, Canada West,^[3] to Emily Youmans Carlyle and William Carlyle.^[4] The second eldest of seven children, Florence was known throughout her life as "Bird" by family and friends.^[5] In 1871, the Carlyle family moved to Woodstock, Ontario, where her father, William Carlyle, worked as the county inspector of schools for Oxford County.^[6][7] While living in Woodstock, Emily created an art studio for local children who were interested in developing their artistic skills under the guidance of hired artists.^[8] Sensing her daughter's artistic talent, Emily arranged for Florence to have private drawing and painting lessons with William Lees Judson.^[8] William Carlyle's uncle (and Florence's great-uncle) was the Scottish historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle;^[9] and William was said by a contemporary writer to have inherited "much of the cleverness and the abstraction" of his celebrated forebear.^[10]

In 1883, Florence and her younger sister, Lilian, exhibited several of their works at the Ladies' Department of the Toronto Industrial Exhibition.^[11] It was this exhibition that gave Florence widespread recognition as Princess Louise and her husband, the Marquis of Lorne purchased one of her paintings of white lilies on china.^[12] This event was heavily covered by The Globe, Daily Mail, and Woodstock's paper at the time.^[13]

After realizing that she needed to go abroad to further develop her artistic skill, 26-year-old Carlyle moved to Paris, France November 3, 1890.^[15] Carlyle journeyed to Paris with her artistic mentor, Paul Peel, his sister Margaret Peel, and their father John Peel. However, once in Paris she rented a flat on her own.^[15] Upon first arriving in Paris, Carlyle found it difficult to find an artistic academy that admitted women and furthermore, did not segregate men and women in classes.^[16] At first Carlyle attended the Académie Julian, but after a disagreement with Adolphe-William Bouguereau, she switched to the less prestigious Académie Delécluse.^[17] By 1892, Carlyle would return to Académie Julian to finish her studies.^[17] In 1893, she exhibited her painting Une Dame Hollandaise at the Salon of the Société des Artistes Français, where it "received favourable attention.^[18] Carlyle returned to Woodstock, where her family still resided in 1896.^[19]

She had studios in London and Woodstock, and in 1897 became the first woman to be elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy. In 1899, she established a studio in New York City.^[20] In 1904, her oil painting The Tiff was selected to appear in the Canadian exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, where it won a silver medal.^[21][22] The Montreal Gazette described this painting (now in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario)^[14] as "a strong piece of work depicting a lover's quarrel", and praised its execution as "clear cut and decisive."^[23]

The last twenty years of her life were spent in Crowborough, Sussex, England, where she and her partner, Juliet Hastings, bought an English cottage they called "Sweet Haws".^[24]

Carlyle died of stomach cancer at Crowborough in the spring of 1923.^[25] Most of her work is in the collection of the Woodstock Art Gallery in Woodstock, Ontario (55 works).^[26]

"Spring Song", a major oil on canvas depicting a woman in a room interior playing the piano, was sold by auction at Gardner Galleries in 2009, London, Ontario for $115,000.

• Florence Caryle, "Student Life in Paris". Sentinel-Review (Woodstock), 10 February 1936.^[27]

Carlyle was given a retrospective by the Woodstock Art Gallery and Museum London in 2004 titled Florence Caryle: Against All Odds. Her work also was included in The Artist Herself, an exhibition co-curated by Alicia Boutilier and Tobi Bruce who also co-edited the book/catalogue.^[28]