John Goodwin Lyman, Arab Girl (La Tunisienne), around 1920
Collections
New Acquisitions: Canadian Historical
John Goodwin Lyman
Biddeford, Maine 1886 - Christ Church, Barbados 1967
Arab Girl (La Tunisienne)
around 1920
oil on canvas
Purchase, the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, 2006
John Lyman is a significant figure in the history of 20th-century Canadian art. From a wealthy Montreal family, he lived as an expatriarte from 1909 to 1931 in Paris and elsewhere, where he forged a conservative modernist style. For six of those years, beginning in 1919, Lyman lived in Tunisia during the winter months. Arab Girl (La Tunisienne) is a product of those years. The geometric structure of the painting and the distance that Lyman takes from any emotion that he might have imparted to the portrait mark it as modernist.
On his return to Montreal, Lyman's international experience, his paintings, his critical writings and his social gatherings of young artists and intellectuals helped to change the nature of Canadian painting. He was a member of The Atelier (formed 1931), a founder of the Contemporary Arts Society (1939-1948) and a painting instructor at McGill University (1949-1958).
Arab Girl (La Tunisienne) was once owned by the Morgan family of Montreal, to whom he was related, and which operated the highly successful department store Henry Morgan & Co. His cousin F. Cleveland Morgan founded the decorative arts department at the Art Association of Montreal (today the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts), and chaired its board for many years. On several occasions, the art gallery at Henry Morgan & Co. featured exhibitions by members of The Atelier and the Contemporary Arts Society.
The Art Centre has outstanding examples of Lyman's landscape and still life painting. The acquisition of Arab Girl (La Tunisienne) brings into the collection a superb example of his portraiture.