Sybil Henley Jacobson
Sybil Jacobson | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 21, 1881 |
| Died | November 4, 1953 near Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Education | Hastings & St. Leonards Municipal School of Science and Art (London), Lambeth School of Science (London), Royal Academy Schools (London). |
| Known for | Painter of portraits and landscape |
Sybil Henley Jacobson (née Atkinson), (July 21, 1881 – November 4, 1953) was a Canadian painter. Her oil and watercolor paintings of prairie landscapes, portraits, and still life are traditional but evoke her subjects with precision and sensitivity. She was a founding member of the Saskatoon Art Club (1925) and one of the ten founding members of the Women's Art Association of Saskatchewan (1929).[1]
Career
Born in London, England, Jacobson was the daughter of Edward and Lucy Atkinson.[2] She had two sisters and a brother.[3] She studied at the Hastings and St. Leonard's Municipal School of Science, at Lambeth School of Science and Art, and for three years at the Royal Academy, the latter two in London, England.[2] While at the Royal Academy Schools, Jacobson studied with John Singer Sargent. During her years of study she was also under the direction of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Sir George Clausen, Ernest Crofts, Sir Frank Dicksee and other masters.[3]
Jacobson studied afterwards in Paris and in 1914, married Percy John Henley, a sculptor she had met there.[2] With Henley, she emigrated to Saskatchewan to farm in 1914 but Henley was sick and died in 1917.[4] Around 1918, she began to live with Dr. Johann Sigurdir Jacobson. They had two children together, Johanna born in 1919 and Jacob born in 1921.[2] They lived in Lac Vert Nord and she worked as an art teacher in Saskatoon in 1925 and in the summers taught students at Lac Vert Nord. She had a studio in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in 1932.[2]
The Jacobsons moved to Winnipeg where they married in 1935, a year before Jacobson died.[2] She then moved to Vancouver in 1936[2] and worked at the Canadian Institute of Associated Arts, Vancouver, B.C. from 1937 to 1938. Sybil Jacobson died near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1953.[2]
Her work is found in public collections such as the Remai Modern,[5] Saskatoon; the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina; the Moose Jaw Art Museum and National Exhibition Centre; and Nutana Collegiate as well as in the collection of the Government of Saskatchewan[1] and private collections.[2]
Group exhibitions
- 1926: Nutana Collegiate Memorial Art Gallery, Saskatoon;
- 1930: Moose Jaw Women's Art Association, Provincial Art Exhibition;
- 1937-40: Vancouver Art Gallery Annual B.C. Artists' Exhibition;[6]
- 1940s (1944?): John Britnell Art Gallery, Toronto;[a]
- 1945-46: Vancouver Art Gallery Annual B.C. Artists' Exhibition;[6]
- 1966: Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Nutana Collegiate Memorial Art Gallery Collection;
- 1971: MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan: Art and Artists
Notes
- ^ In 1945, she exhibited a work at the Vancouver Art Gallery titled Christmas in Toronto 1944 so she probably was in Toronto at that date, likely for her show there.
References
- ^ a b "Saskatchewan Network for Art Collecting". Archived from the original on 9 March 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Newman, Marketa (1990). Biographical Dictionary of Saskatchewan Artists. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: Fifth House Publishers. pp. 91-91. ISBN 0-920079-66-0.
- ^ a b Alexander, Mary G. (1984). Sybil Jacobson, Painting in the West. University of Toronto Press: HMS Press, Toronto. ISBN 0-919957-14-5.
- ^ Westbridge, Anthony R. (2000). The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction Vol Two: G-L. Vancouver, B.C.: Westbridge Publications Ltd. p. 75. ISBN 0-9685907-1-3.
- ^ "Works". collections.remaimodern.org. Remai Modern, Saskatoon. Retrieved 21 July 2025.
- ^ a b "Article". www.sim-publishing.com. SIM Publishing. Retrieved 22 July 2025.