Helen McNicoll, Canadian Impressionist

Summary

Stuff You Missed in History Class: Helen McNicoll, Canadian Impressionist

Episode Release Date: February 3, 2025
Hosts: Holly Fry & Tracy V. Wilson
Production: iHeartRadio

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Introduction

In the February 3, 2025 episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class, hosts Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson delve into the life and legacy of Helen Galloway McNicoll, a prominent Canadian Impressionist painter. This detailed exploration uncovers McNicoll’s artistic journey, her influence on Canadian art, and the rediscovery of her works decades after her untimely death.

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Early Life and Family Background

[04:26] Holly Fry begins by introducing Helen Galloway McNicoll, born on December 14, 1879, in Toronto, Ontario. She was the eldest child of David and Emily Patchley McNicoll, immigrants from Scotland and England, respectively. The family relocated to Montreal, Quebec, where Helen grew up with six siblings.

[05:41] Tracy V. Wilson elaborates on Helen’s upbringing, highlighting her father David’s successful career in the railroads, which provided the family with increasing prosperity. By Helen's early twenties, David had risen to vice president at Canadian Pacific Railway, commissioning their expansive family home, Braley.

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Artistic Beginnings and Education

[06:10] Helen's exposure to art was nurtured from a young age, thanks to her parents' interests—Emily in china painting and poetry, and David in sketching and collecting art. Despite contracting scarlet fever as a toddler, which resulted in deafness, Helen received her education at home, developing skills in reading lips and playing the piano.

[07:15] Helen received her first formal art education at the Art Association of Montreal, founded in 1860. Her curriculum included nude figure studies, copying masterpieces, and drawing plaster copies of famous statues. Tracy V. Wilson notes that in 1899, Helen secured a scholarship for her exceptional drawings.

[07:40] Her mentorship under William Bremner, the Art Association’s long-serving director and a pivotal figure in Canadian art, significantly shaped her artistic development. Bremner, often hailed as the "father of Canadian painting," was instrumental in educating a generation of Canadian artists.

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Connections to the Deaf Community and Education

[08:13] Helen’s involvement with the McKay Institution for Protestant deaf children in Montreal is discussed, highlighting the school's role in educating deaf individuals using the oral method—a topic Holly Fry explains further.

[10:37] Holly Fry provides historical context on the oralism versus manualism debate in deaf education, referencing the 1880 Milan Conference that favored oralism and its long-lasting impacts, including Helen’s possible connections to the deaf community through her art.

[12:43] Despite limited personal writings, Tracy V. Wilson suggests that Helen’s sketches of students at schools for the deaf indicate her engagement with and support for the deaf community, although specific details remain scarce.

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Advanced Art Training in London and Paris

[17:09] At age 23, Helen traveled to London to study at the Slade School of Art, earning first-class honors over two years. Tracy V. Wilson explores the reasons behind choosing London over the more prestigious Paris, citing family connections and language considerations due to Helen’s deafness.

[18:41] Holly Fry adds that London’s conservative reputation and the Slade School’s inclusive approach to women artists, particularly in nude figure classes, made it an appealing choice. The Slade was known for its "restrained brand of modernism," aligning with Helen’s artistic aspirations.

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Life and Work in St. Ives and Collaboration with Dorothea Sharpe

[19:34] After her studies, Helen attended the Cornish School of Landscape and Sea Painting in St. Ives, Cornwall, a hub for Impressionist and plein air artists. There, she met Dorothea Sharpe, a British Impressionist who became both her professional collaborator and personal partner.

[20:03] Tracy V. Wilson describes the deep bond between Helen and Dorothea, highlighting their shared studio spaces, mutual support, and the affectionate nicknames they used for each other—Nellie and Dolly. Their partnership allowed them to navigate the male-dominated art world, sharing costs and fostering a creative environment focused on women artists.

[21:42] Tracy V. Wilson continues, noting Helen’s first professional exhibition at the Art Association of Montreal in 1906 and her subsequent accolades, including the Jessie Dow Prize in 1908 for her painting "September Evening."

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Artistic Style and Themes

[29:05] The hosts discuss McNicoll’s artistic style, emphasizing her mastery of light and atmosphere, hallmarks of Impressionism. Paintings like "Fishing" (1907) and "In the Shadow of the Tent" (1914) showcase her ability to capture natural light and the serene yet introspective mood of her subjects.

[33:38] Tracy V. Wilson explores interpretations of Helen’s work, noting the elusive expressions and quietude of her subjects, which some critics associate with her own experiences as a deaf individual. Additionally, her paintings often depict women in both traditional and subtly subversive roles, reflecting the evolving gender dynamics of the early 20th century.

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Recognition, Awards, and Legacy

[25:29] Tragically, Helen McNicoll’s promising career was cut short when she died on June 27, 1915, in Swanage, Dorset, at the age of 35 due to complications from diabetes. Her obituary praised her as "one of Canada's most promising artists," noting her unique progression and the revelation brought by her final works.

[29:48] Posthumously, Helen’s contributions to Canadian Impressionism were overshadowed by movements like the Group of Seven. However, recent retrospectives, such as the 1999 exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the 2023 "Cassatt Impressionists Between Worlds" exhibition, have begun to reestablish her significance in art history.

[31:26] Holly Fry underscores Helen’s role in bridging Canadian art with European art scenes, enhancing the visibility and appreciation of Canadian Impressionism both domestically and internationally.

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Rediscovery of Helen McNicoll’s Work

[40:53] A significant moment in Helen McNicoll’s legacy came with the rediscovery of her painting "Women in the Fields," previously known as "The Bean Harvest." Authenticated by the BBC TV show Fake or Fortune, the painting's value soared from £2,000 to over £300,000. This discovery not only highlighted Helen’s enduring artistic talent but also prompted renewed interest in her oeuvre.

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Audience Interaction and Appreciation

[41:58] The episode features a heartfelt letter from listener Sarah, an organologist with a PhD, who shares her appreciation for the podcast's coverage of musical instruments and cultural connections. She also includes adorable photos of her dog, Miss Betty White, adding a personal touch to the episode.

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Conclusion and Reflective Thoughts

[39:55] Tracy V. Wilson reflects on how Helen McNicoll's work was initially underappreciated due to limited public availability and overshadowing by later artists. However, recent exhibitions and scholarly interest have begun to rectify this oversight, ensuring that Helen’s contributions to Impressionism and Canadian art are duly recognized.

[40:41] The episode concludes by celebrating Helen McNicoll's artistic journey and lasting impact, inspiring listeners to appreciate the nuanced narratives of historical figures who have shaped their respective fields.

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Notable Quotes

• Tracy V. Wilson [02:27]: "The way the Unearthed episodes work is I just look at a ton of news and research sources over the course of a quarter..."

• Holly Fry [09:49]: "The Oral School began to shift its focus due to debates over the best ways to teach deaf children and for deaf people to communicate."

• Tracy V. Wilson [29:05]: "September Evening depicts a gold field dotted with sheaves of grain, bordered by a forest... It was a revelation even to people who had kept watch on her previous pieces."

• Holly Fry [25:29]: "The Montreal Gazette described her last picture shown in Canada that spring as a revelation even to people who had kept watch on her previous pieces."

• Tracy V. Wilson [33:38]: "A number of art critics have interpreted this as possibly connected to McNicoll's deafness."

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Final Thoughts

This episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class offers a comprehensive look into the life of Helen McNicoll, shedding light on her artistic prowess, personal challenges, and the resurgence of interest in her work. Through meticulous research and engaging storytelling, Holly and Tracy honor a remarkable artist whose legacy continues to influence and inspire.

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Listen to Stuff You Missed in History Class on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or your preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

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[Arturo Castro]

Hi, I'm Arturo Castro and I've been lucky enough to do stuff like Broad City and Narcos and Roadhouse. And now I'm starting a podcast because honestly guys, I don't feel the space is crowded enough. Get ready for Greatest Escapes, a new comedy podcast about the wildest true escape stories in history. Each week I'll be sitting down with some of the most hilarious actors and writers and comedians. People like Ed Helms, Diane Guerrero, and Joseph Gordon Levitt. I love storytelling and I love you.

[Maria Tremarki]

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[Maria Tremarki]

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[Holly Fry]

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[Emilia]

I'm Emila, host of the podcast Crumbs. For years, I had to rely on other people to tell me my story, and what I heard wasn't good. You really Last night, it felt like I lived most of my life in a blackout. I was trapped in addiction. I had to grab the lamp and smashed it against the walls. And then I decided I wanted to tell my Listen to crumbs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Holly Fry]

Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry, a name I.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Was introduced to while working on our most recent installment of unearthed is Helen McNichol, who was an Impressionist painter. The way the Unearthed episodes work, if you haven't heard me tell the story before, is I just. I look at a ton of news and research sources over the course of a quarter. I bookmark everything that seems relevant, and then when it's time to actually write the episode, I go through all that, pick out the ones that seem the most interesting or fun or notable, and there are way more things, things that I've bookmarked over the course of the quarter then can possibly go into an episode even if I expanded it into a third part, which I don't want to do for a number of reasons, one of them being that I would need to write an entire third episode in the same amount of time that I'm currently writing. Two in most cases. But there are also a lot of reasons why something might not go into that final cut. Like, maybe it's confusing or seems really similar to something we just talked about without really adding anything new. Or maybe I just. I can't figure out what is notable or really interesting about it. The Helen McNichol find that came up as I was researching our most recent Unearthed was a rediscovered painting, and it didn't wind up in this latest installment for two reasons. One was that the story came from a BBC TV show called Fake or Fortune, which is about art authentication. I try not to put too much stuff from TV shows on Unearthed, especially TV shows that sort of have a whole focus on unearthing things. Like, I think we've had one thing that was from Antiques Roadshow on Unearthed Ever, and that was because it was one of the Bronte sisters hair. Uh, the other reason, though, was I immediately just wanted to do a whole episode on Helen McNichol. So here it is.

[Holly Fry]

Helen Galloway McNichol was born in Toronto, Ontario, on December 14, 1879. She was the first child born to David and Emily Patchley McNicol. David had been born in Scotland and Emily had been born in England, and they immigrated to Canada before Helen was born. When Helen was still very young, the family moved from Toronto to Montreal, Quebec, and that's where her six siblings were born, three brothers and three sisters.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

David's career was in railroads, starting back when he was still living in the uk. After arriving in Canada, he worked for a couple of different railroad lines before being hired at Canadian Pacific Railway, where he spent the rest of his career. He worked his way up through the ranks there. And so the family became increasingly prosperous and prominent over the course of Helen's early life. By the time she was in her early 20s, her father had become a vice president and had commissioned the building of a large house that they called Braley. It had five bedrooms and two servants rooms. A 1916 obituary described him as one of the best known railway men in North America.

[Holly Fry]

It's likely that Helen's exposure to art started at an early age. David and Emily were both interested in art. Emily painted china and she was also a poet. And David sketched and painted and also built up an art collection. And art was probably also part of Helen's early education, which happened at home. She contracted scarlet fever and became deaf when she was still a toddler. And she was tutored at home rather than being sent to school.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We don't really have very much detail about Helen's early life or about her hearing loss and how it might have affected her sense of herself or her relationship to the world. The sources used in today's episode agree that she learned to read lips and that her family and friends helped her in situations where she needed to communicate with people she didn't know. It's also really clear that she enjoyed music. A couple of sources noted that she learned to play the piano. And we also know that the family traveled. Helen's first trip abroad was when she was five, when she and her oldest younger siblings made a trip back to England with their mother.

[Holly Fry]

Helen's first formal instruction in art was at the Art association of Montreal, which had been founded in 1860. Her education there included things like nude figure studies, copying the works of great masters, and creating drawings of plaster copies of famous statues. McNicol got a scholarship for these drawings in 1899.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Helen's teachers at the Art association included William Bremner, who served as director of the association for more than 30 years. Although he'd been really reluctant about taking on this role when he first accepted that job 10 years earlier. It was one of those things where he really wanted to focus on his own arts, but his paintings weren't selling and he needed the income.

[Holly Fry]

In terms of his art, Brimner is probably most known for his landscapes, but he also played a huge role in the development of Canadian art overall. The British colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada had become one nation in 1867. So the Dominion of Canada was only about 20 years old when he started teaching. And he played a deeply influential role in the education of. Of a whole generation of Canadian artists. So he's sometimes called the father of Canadian painting.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Also in 1899, McNichol sketched some students at a school for the deaf. So we're going to take a moment to talk about education for deaf children in Quebec. In the late 19th century, this school was described as the Oral School, and most of the sources used in this episode conclude that it was the McKay Institution for Protestant deaf, Mutants and the Blind in Montreal that had been founded in 1869. At that time, for the most part, there were separate educational and social institutions for Catholics and Protestants in Quebec. Catholics were also more likely to speak French, while Protestants were more likely to speak English. The Roman Catholic Church had already established two schools for deaf French speaking Catholic students in Quebec, one for boys and one for girls. But the McKay institution was Quebec's first school for deaf children who were Protestant and from English speaking families.

[Holly Fry]

The McKay School was named for Joseph McKay, who was in the dry goods business and donated the land and building for the school. But one of the people who was really instrumental in its founding was Thomas Wid, who was a journalist and educator who had grown up and been educated in England and who was himself deaf. Wid became the school's principal, and his wife Margaret, who was also deaf, was heavily involved as well. In the earliest years of the school, the two of them made up most or all of the staff.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

When the McKay School was founded, the focus was on teaching deaf children to read and write and to fingerspell and use other signs, along with other basic academic work, vocational and life skills, and religious instruction. Not long after it opened, a student was enrolled who had become deaf after learning how to speak, and the school hired a hearing teacher to both help meet that student's needs and to teach other students how to speak. But then, over time, the school's focus shifted, in part because of debates over the best ways to teach deaf children and for deaf people to communicate. Broadly speaking, manualists advocated for sign language, while oralists advocated for deaf people to learn to speak and read lips.

[Holly Fry]

In 1880, an international conference of deaf educators was held in Milan, Italy. The assembled educators resolved that oralism was the superior method and they banned the teaching of sign language. These resolutions were based on the incorrect belief that learning to sign was harmful for children's cognitive development and a desire among hearing educators for deaf students to assimilate with the hearing world as much as possible. In 2010, the 21st International Congress on Education of the Deaf was held in Vancouver and denounced these resolutions and formally apologized for this ban.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So to get back to how this relates to Helen McNichol, several sources used in this episode say that the McKay school by that point, teaching the oral method was colloquially being called the Oral School. And so that's where McNichol sketched these students. I'm not completely confident that's the case, though. I looked through all kinds of documents associated with this school and articles and a master's thesis about the school's history, news reports from Montreal from the 1860s to about 1900, and reports on schools for deaf children in North America over those years. And I really didn't find any references to the McKay School being called the Oral School.

[Holly Fry]

That doesn't conclusively mean it didn't happen. But a couple of sources describe McNicoll visiting a different school in 1899, the Mystic Oral School in Connecticut. Earlier in the 19th century, a man named Jonathan Whipple had developed a method to teach his deaf son how to speak. And decades later, his grandson had established the Whipple School for the Deaf. The Whipple School also included academic and vocational training, along with a big focus on reading lips and speaking. This school went through various changes and difficulties before becoming mystic oral School in 1898.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So regardless of which school these students were attending when McNichols sketched them, the fact that she was drawing students at a school for the deaf suggests that she had connections to the deaf community around her. We don't know exactly what those connections were, though. Very few of McNichols letters have survived until today, and there's really no diaries or other personal writing of hers. Newspaper articles about her art career don't reference her deafness at all, which isn't necessarily surprising considering attitudes about deafness and disability at the time. This is similar to what came up last year in our episode on tennis player Charlotte Cooper. Starry.

[Holly Fry]

When Helen McNichol was in her early 20s, she went abroad to study art. And we'll get into that after we pause for a sponsor break.

[Arturo Castro]

Hi, I'm Arturo Castro, and I've been lucky enough to do stuff like Broad City and Narcos and Roadhouse and so many commercials about back pain. And now I'm starting a podcast because honestly guys, I don't feel the space is crowded enough. Get ready for Greatest Escapes, a new comedy podcast about the wildest true escape stories in history. Each week I'll be sitting down with some of the most hilarious actors and writers and comedians to tell them a buck wild tale from across history and time. People like Ed Helms, Diane Guerrero, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zoe Chao. Titanic, Charles Manson, Alcatraz, Assata Shakur, the.

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[Maria Tremarki]

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarki.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

[Maria Tremarki]

Each season we explore a new theme, everything from poisoners and pirates to art thieves and snake oil products and those who made and sold them.

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We uncover the stories and secrets of some of history's most compelling criminal figures, including a man who built a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Yep, that's a fact.

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We also look at what kinds of societal forces were at play at the time of the crime, from legal injustices to the ethics of body snatching, to see what, if anything, might look different through today's perspective.

[Holly Fry]

And be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom made cocktails and mocktails inspired by the stories. There's one for every story we tell.

[Maria Tremarki]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1902 at the age of 23, Helen McNichol went to London, England to study at the Slade School of Art. There's a bit of speculation about why she decided to go to London rather than to Paris, since Paris was considered the more prestigious and influential place for promising artists. McNichol had family connections in the UK and her father had work connections there as well, so this might have been a factor. There's also no mention of her speaking French in the research for this episode, so it's possible that that played a role too. She definitely visited France later on. She had a studio there, but she or her family may have had concerns about her living somewhere that she didn't speak the language to study art while also being deaf.

[Holly Fry]

Of course, London also had a more conservative and respectable reputation than Paris did. So there's also a possibility that McNichol, or perhaps her parents, just preferred that the Slade School specifically is described as having a, quote, restrained brand of modernism. During this era, it could still be controversial for women to participate in art classes with nude models. But as had been the case at the Art association of Montreal, this was allowed at the Slade School. So it was popular among women art students. In the late 19th and early 20th century. About two thirds of the students there were women.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

McNichols spent two years at the Slade School of Art, earning first class honors. She took a trip to France and then went to St. Ives in Cornwall to attend the Cornish School of Landscape and Sea Painting. St. Ives was a fishing town that was also home to artist colonies. A few decades later, after World War I, St. Ives became home to a group of more abstract avant garde artists. And that's often what people are talking about today when they say the St. Ives school. But when McNiccol was there, a lot of the focus was on Impressionism and landscapes and seascapes painted on plein air or out in the open. One of McNichol's teachers was British Impressionist Algernon Talmadge. And Canadian artist Emily Carr studied there at the same time that Helen McNichol did.

[Holly Fry]

In St. Ives, McNichol also met British Impressionist Dorothea Sharpe. Sharp had been born in 1873, so she was about six years older than McNichol, and she was a little farther along in her art career. Sharp had studied in London and Paris, and she had exhibited work at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Paris Salon. She was able to share her knowledge and experience in both art and the European art world with McNichol.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Sharp and McNichol were together for the rest of McNichol's life. They lived together and shared studio space, mutually supported and encouraged one another, and called each other Nellie and Dolly. The titles of their paintings often don't say who the model was, but many of McNichols paintings are believed to be of Sharp and vice versa. Sharp was also really skilled at communicating and working with models, like getting them into poses that were both realistic and evocative. There are a lot of paintings in which Sharp and McNicol were clearly working with the same models in the same setting. In addition to working with their models, Sharp also made a lot of their arrangements when they traveled together and helped McNicol communicate with others at art shows and other events.

[Holly Fry]

We don't really have things like diary entries, letters between the two of them, or letters to other people in which they wrote about one another. It is clear, though, that their relationship made their work as artists possible. It was not appropriate for women to live and work alone, so the fact that they were together gave them access to spaces that they wouldn't have had otherwise. While McNichols family was affluent enough that she didn't need to sell her work to support herself, that was not the case for Sharp. But they were able to share their costs on things like supplies and accommodations. They also created an artistic world that was really focused on women. Aside from a few street scenes or crowd scenes, their models were almost entirely women and children. And they had connections to a number of other women artists.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Although Helen McNichol never lived in Canada full time, after going to London to study art, she did visit and she sent her paintings back to Canada for various exhibitions. Her first professional exhibition took place when she was 26 at the Art association of Montreal. That was in February and March of 1906. She very quickly developed a name for herself as an artist, and in 1908 her painting September Evening was awarded the Art association of Montreal's Jessie Dow Prize, named for the association's governor. This was the first year this prize had been awarded, and McNicol shared it with painter W.H. clapp, who had also studied with William Bremner. September Evening depicts a gold field dotted with sheaves of grain, bordered by a forest. Most of the forest is shown only in shadow, except for one tall tree that's covered in browning leaves. There's a pair of ruts left by wheels off to the side and barely visible off in the distance, there's a shape of what looks like a woman in a skirt walking away toward the woods with a small child.

[Holly Fry]

Also in 1908, she and Dorothea Sharp got a studio in London and later they had one in Paris as well. They traveled frequently, doing a lot of painting from remote villages, painting the villages themselves as well as countrysides and seasides. McNichol became involved in the Society of Women Artists, which Sharp was already a part of, and Sharp became its vice president. In 1913, McNiccol was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists, which had been established in 1823 in response to the exclusivity of the Royal Academy of Arts, which admitted only 50 members at a time. The year she was elected to the Society, she also had three paintings shown in its exhibition.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1914, McNiccol was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. She was also awarded the Women's Art Society Prize that year for her painting in the Shadow of the Tent, which we'll talk more about in a little bit.

[Holly Fry]

McNicol made a visit back to Canada in April of 1914, and after returning to Europe, she and Sharp went to St. Valerie sur Somme, on the northern coast of France. On June 28th of that year, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie were assassinated by a Bosnian Serb. Austria, Hungary declared war on Serbia and by the start of August, multiple nations in Europe were at war.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There are some surviving letters from this time, and they don't really make it sound like McNicol and sharp thought they were in danger at this point. But people back home in Canada did not feel the same. David McNichol's role as vice president at Canadian Pacific Railway had already made a lot of Helen's travel possible. And at this point, officials with the railroad worked with their connections in Europe to get Helen and Dorothea back to England. Both women donated some of their artwork to help raise money for the war effort.

[Holly Fry]

Sadly, in June of the following year, Helen McNichols family received a cable that she had suddenly become ill. And then the next day a second cable saying that she had died. She died in Swanage, Dorset on June 27, 1915 at the age of 35. The sources that Tracy used in this episode all agree that she died of complications from diabetes, but none of them really mention her having diabetes. Prior to her death. She was buried at Northbrook Cemetery in Swanage.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We will talk more about her art and her influence and legacy after another sponsor break.

[Arturo Castro]

Hi, I'm Arturo Castro and I've been lucky enough to do stuff like Broad City and Narcos and Roadhouse and so many commercials about back pain. And now I'm starting a podcast because honestly guys, I don't feel the space is crowded enough. Get ready for Greatest Escapes, a new comedy podcast about the wildest true escape stories in history. Each week I'll be sitting down with some of the most hilarious actors and writers and comedians to tell them a buck wild tale from across history, history and time. People like Ed Helms, Diane Guerrero, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zoe Chow. Titanic, Charles Manson, Alcatraz, Asada Shakur, the.

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Sketchy guy named Steve.

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It's giving funny true crime.

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I love storytelling and I love you. So I can't wait.

[Arturo Castro]

Listen and subscribe to Greatest escapes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Maria Tremarki]

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Frey. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

[Maria Tremarki]

Each season we explore a new theme, everything from poisoners and pirates to art thieves and snake oil products and those who made and sold them.

[Holly Fry]

We uncover the stories and secrets of some of history's most compelling criminal figures, including a man who built a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Yep, that's a fact.

[Maria Tremarki]

We also look at what kinds of societal forces were at play at the time of the crime, from legal injustices to the ethics of body snatching, to see what, if anything, might look different through today's perspective.

[Holly Fry]

And be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom made cocktails and mocktails inspired by the stories. There's one for every story we tell.

[Maria Tremarki]

Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Dr. Laurie Santos]

Catch Jon Stewart back in action on the Daily show and in your ears with the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. From his hilarious satirical takes on today's politics and entertainment to the unique voices of correspondents and contributors, it's your perfect companion to stay on top of what's happening now. Plus, you'll get special content just for podcast listeners, like in depth interviews and a roundup of the week's top headlines. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jon Stewart]

The forces shaping markets and the economy are often hiding behind a blur of numbers.

[Bloomberg Journalist]

So that's why we created the Big Take from Bloomberg podcast to give you the context you need to make sense of it all.

[Jon Stewart]

Every day in just 15 minutes, we dive into one global business story that matters.

[Bloomberg Journalist]

You'll hear from Bloomberg journalists like Matt Levine.

[Dr. Laurie Santos]

A lot of this Meme stock stuff.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Is, I think, embarrassing to the Sec.

[Bloomberg Journalist]

Amanda Mull who writes our BusinessWeek Buying Power column.

[Holly Fry]

Very few companies who go viral are.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Like, totally prepared for what that means.

[Bloomberg Journalist]

And Zoe Tillman, Senior Legal Report Courts are not supposed to decide elections. Courts are not really supposed to play a big role in choosing our elected leaders. It's for the voters to decide.

[Jon Stewart]

Follow the Big Take podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

After Helen McNichol died, her obituary in the Montreal Gazette described her as one of Canada's most promising artists. It went on to say that she was, quote, a conscientious and sincere painter. Despite the temptation to which so many succumbed to pattern their art on that of instructors, Ms. McNichol went her own way and with each succeeding year saw advance in the work, which she showed at the spring exhibitions under the auspices of the Art association of Montreal and the Royal Canadian Academy exhibitions. This obituary described her last picture shown in Canada that spring as a revelation even to people who had kept watch on her previous pieces.

[Holly Fry]

This obituary also references the changing world of art in the early 20th century. When the Impressionist movement had started to take shape in the 1860s, it had been really controversial, an avant garde artistic movement that rejected the formal rules and standards of the Academy des Beaux Arts in France. Helen McNichol was born almost 20 years after that, and by the time she started formally studying art, Impressionism had become a lot more popular and accepted within and outside of France. Other artistic movements had become the ones seen as the avant garde. The Montreal Gazette describes her as being interested in Impressionism only through, quote, attaining the ends that school stands for the rendition of light and atmosphere. While the art centers were agitated by the Cubists and Post Impressionists, the Montreal artist retained the individuality of her style and went on improving along her own lines, unimpressed and unaffected by the latest movements in art.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So while Impressionism wasn't novel in France anymore, when McNichol started her career as an artist, it was fairly new in Canada. The first exhibition of Impressionist art in Canada took place in 1892. So McNicol was part of the first generation of Canadian Impressionist painters and really helped to popularize Impressionism in Canada and by Canadian artists. She also helped connect the world of Canadian art to the art worlds of London and Paris.

[Holly Fry]

In terms of her paintings themselves, that bit from the obituary about the rendition of light and atmosphere has been echoed by multiple writers and art critics in more recent years. Light and its effects on her subjects are a huge part of her paintings. In fishing, painted in 1907, two little girls are sitting by a stream, fishing with rods made from sticks. They're under a tree with a broad trunk, and the sunlight through the leaves dapples the surface of the water and the grass around them. There are bright spots of sunlight on their white dresses, a white hat on the ground next to them, and a glass jar filled with what looks like lemonade. Toward the top left corner of the painting, there are two ducks, one white and one brown, swimming through a brightly sunlit part of the stream that's uninterrupted by shade.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Another example is in the shadow of the tent, which is the one that earned McNichol the Women's Art Society Prize in 1914. Two women are at the beach under a white tent. Outside of the tent's shadow, the sand is bathed in golden sunlight, and there are sketchy figures of children in the far distance by the water. In the shadow are two women, one in a white dress and the other in a blue dress covered by a bluish white jacket or smock. The one in blue is on a stool looking through a box of art supplies, while the one in white is on a blanket on the ground looking at a sketchbook. The contrast between the light and the shadow is really dramatic. The painting almost feels cooler in the part that the tent is shading the models.

[Holly Fry]

Names aren't specified, but it's possible that the woman in blue is Dorothea Sharp and that the woman in white is Marcella Smith. Marcella Smith was also an artist, a bit younger than Dorothea and Helen. Marcella would have been about 27 when this was painted, while Helen would have been about 34 and Dorothea about 40. Marcella was also close to Dorothea and Helen, and the three of them often worked together. Dorothea and Marcella continued to work and travel together after Helen died.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Another quality that often comes up in discussions of Helen McNichols work is a sense of quiet or distance. It's rare that her subjects are looking out from the canvas, and when they are, they are rarely looking directly at the viewer. Often they seem to be really immersed in what they're doing or in their own interior worlds. In paintings with more than one person, they often aren't interacting with one another. Those two little girls fishing have their eyes on their own poles. The two women under the tent are focused on their art supplies and their sketchbook and not on each other. A few of her paintings are of spaces that are made for people, but without any people in them. So a round table out in a cottage garden with a tablecloth and a tea set Or a corner of a bedroom that has a fireplace and a vanity and one's bright streak of sunlight on the floor, but no one in there. This is speculative, but a number of art critics have interpreted this as possibly connected to McNichol's deafness.

[Holly Fry]

Another source of speculation is how to interpret McNichol's work in terms of gender and gender roles in the early 20th century. Some of her paintings are of women working like the apple gatherer, circa 1911. It shows a woman pulling a branch of a tree toward her so she can pick an apple from it, with her cheeks flushed in the heat and her back slightly arched. The fruit Vendor, circa 1910, depicts a woman sitting by her fruit stand in an alley, resting her forearms on her knees, with a cloth awning providing her and her wares a little bit of shade. In a welcome breeze, which was painted around 1909, a woman in a blue skirt and white top is taking in the laundry from the line as it billows in the wind. But there are also lots of women, often dressed in white, doing things that were considered typical and appropriate for middle class women of the era. Reading next to a child in a pram, or reading alone, or doing some kind of embroidery or needlework, or seemingly just waiting while dressed for an event.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Sometimes these are interpreted as conventional paintings of women in conventionally feminine settings. The kinds of scenes McNichol would have had access to as a woman painter at a time and place in which women didn't have the freedom to just do whatever they wanted while still being seen as respectable. But there are some critics who have interpreted some of her work as more subtly subversive. One is the Chintz sofa, painted around 1913. In it, a woman in a white dress is doing some kind of needlework on a chintz sofa supported by a brownish red throw pillow. The window behind her has beige drapes, and there's a blue vase containing some silvery foliage behind her. This could be interpreted as just what it looks like, woman in a white dress doing needlework. But that chintz sofa is one that was in McNichols London studio. And it's possible, or even likely, that the model is Dorothea Sharp. If that's the case, then this painting is of McNichol's partner in both her work and her life, who was herself a working artist and vice president of the Society of Women Artists. This painting is in their shared professional working space. Maybe it was intentional, but also maybe not. By this point, the white dress had also become an emblem of the suffrage movement.

[Holly Fry]

We have Almost nothing from McNichol herself on how to interpret her work or what she intended when she painted it. As we said earlier, there aren't many surviving letters or other writing with her own point of view. She did keep a scrapbook full of clippings, mostly of images of women and children. Most of these images were by other women artists, a lot of them by American illustrator Jessie Wilcox Smith, who maybe needs her own episode at some point. She also had a clipping of past podcast subject Elisabeth Vijay LeBron's 1789 self portrait with her daughter. A couple of write ups on McNichol describe her as focused on maternal imagery, and that's not really true in her own work, but images of mothers and children are very common in this scrapbook.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Helen McNichol was well known as an artist during her lifetime, and she was prolific. When the Art association of Montreal had a memorial retrospective 10 years after she died, it included more than 120 of her works. Some of these were sort of sketches and figure studies, but that is incredible considering that less than 15 years passed between the beginning of her formal study of art and her death. Only two of her works were acquired by museums or galleries during her lifetime, though, possibly because she just didn't need to sell paintings to make a living. The National Gallery of Canada acquired her painting the Stubble Fields, which she painted around 1912 and is reminiscent of Claude Monet's Haystack paintings. The St. John Art Club bought the Farmyard, which was painted around 1908. That one is less detailed with thicker brush strokes than some of her other work, and it shows a woman in a billowing skirt standing next to a white farmhouse with a reddish roof.

[Holly Fry]

Most of Helen McNichol's work continues to be held in family and private collections, which is probably part of why it took 10 years to stage a memorial exhibition.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But the fact that little of it.

[Holly Fry]

Was publicly available meant that Helen McNichol faded from prominence soon after her death in Canada. She was also overshadowed by other later artists like the group of landscape painters known as the Group of Seven, who came to prominence a few years after her death. Additionally, the first histories of Impressionism in Canada really overlooked the contributions of women artists, even though McNichol had been one of the artists to really help popularize Impressionism in Canada.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That's changed a bit in more recent years, though. A comprehensive retrospective of McNichols work was held at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1999. In 2023, the art gallery of Ontario also hosted an exhibition called Cassatt Impressionists Between Worlds, which featured the work of both McNicol and American impressionist Mary Cassatt. It doesn't seem like McNichol and Cassatt ever actually met, but they were contemporaries and they were compared to one another during their lifetimes. There were also some parallels between McNichols life and work and that of past podcast subject Berthe Morisot, who we covered on the show. In 21, the first retrospective of McNichol's.

[Holly Fry]

Work to be held in Quebec just happened. That was Helen An Impressionistic Journey, held at the Musee national des Beaux Arts du Quebec and that closed on January 5th.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And about what was unearthed last year, McNichol's painting the Bean Harvest had been shown during her lifetime, and then it had gone missing. Many years later, British artist and art dealer David Taylor saw a piece in an auction house that was titled in their records as Women in the Fields, and it was described as in the style of Helen McNiccol. He bought this for £2,000. It was in an inexpensive frame that seemed to date back to the 1960s when he bought it, and when he removed the frame, he saw McNichol's signature. Experts from the BBC TV show Fake or Fortune authenticated the painting and estimated its value. That's more than £300,000, or more than half a million Canadian dollars. This piece was sold at auction through Sotheby's in November, and the buyer's identity has not been publicized, at least not as of when we are recording this, that is Helen McNichol.

[Holly Fry]

Do you have a bit of listener mail?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yes, this is from Sarah. Sarah wrote in after our most recent Unearthed with an email titled Hornbostel Socks is My Jam. It says, Dear Holly and Tracy, I wanted to write after hearing your most recent Unearthed episode to say thank you for highlighting the musical instrument research taking place in Zimbabwe and South Africa. My ears definitely tuned in when you brought up this project, and I had a good chuckle when you mentioned the Hornbostel Sachs classification system. As an organologist, someone who studies the history and development of musical instruments, I don't often hear my somewhat obscure field of study referenced in podcasts, and very rarely does anyone mention Hornbostel sax. I use this classification system in my work at a musical instrument museum where we study how instruments develop over time and how these developments have changed instruments, sound and music overall. It is also a helpful tool for helping to understand the similarities of instruments from around the world. Although instruments may look different or be made from different materials, they can all be connected or grouped together through the ways they make vibrations. We mentioned in the segment that some of the instruments in the artworks looked to be played by particular genders. This is another interesting part of organological research. Today, we don't really think of instruments as being gendered. Even in Western musical practice, there was a long tradition of restricting instrument performance to one gender. Women in particular were restricted in their musical practice, with wind's instrument performance being forbidden. Imagine the scandal of a lady blowing into an object while guitar and keyboard instrument performance were encouraged. Obviously, I'm a big musical instrument geek and I could go on for ages, but overall, the thing I love most about my field is how musical instruments connect people and cultures, and that by studying instruments of the past, we can learn not only about the music of today, but also how people have interacted with this music across time. For our pet Tax, I've attached pictures of my big goofy couch potato of a white boxer named Miss Betty White. Betty has heterochromia and we are often stopped on the street by people commenting, oh, she has two different colored eyes. It gives me great pleasure to look down at Betty and respond, oh, Betty, you lost a contact again. There's usually a bit of confusion before they realize I am teasing, but her mismatched eyes are always a good conversation starter. The photos are from one of our recent walks through a park in Edinburgh. There's definitely a before and after moment in the pictures after our big white dog jumped in a big mud puddle. One of her favorite pastimes. Thank you again for all you do. I have a PhD in Symihc and I look forward to all your episodes. Keep up the good work. All the best, Sarah. Thank you so much for this email, Sarah, and for this very adorable set of dog pictures. Goodness, I love that you have a dog named Miss Betty White. I love that Miss Betty White has two different color eyes. So cute.

[Holly Fry]

Betty White would be very honored since she was a big advocate for animals.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, I think there's not as strict gendering of musical instruments today, but I do remember when I was in, you know, middle and high school, the age of taking orchestra and band classes in school, there was definitely a perception that flutes were for girls and brass instruments were for boys.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, I would say the same.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. And I. I don't know if that is still true at all because I have not been to a high school marching band competition in many, many years at this point. And it was like, not strictly adhered to. There were, there were, you know, kids that, that played different instruments than one might have expected based on their gender, but it did seem like that was a kind of unwritten rule. Yep. So anyway, thank you again so much for this email. Sarah. If you would like to send us a note about this or any other podcast wrote history [e-mail] if you want to subscribe to our show, we're on the iHeartRadio app and we are anywhere else you like to get your podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Arturo Castro]

Hi, I'm Arturo Castro, and I've been lucky enough to do stuff like Broad City and Narcos and Roadhouse, and now I'm starting a podcast. Honestly, guys, I don't feel the space is crowded enough. Get ready for Greatest Escapes, a new comedy podcast about the wildest true escape stories in history. Each week I'll be sitting down with some of the most hilarious actors and writers and comedians. People like Ed Helms, Diane Guerrero, and Joseph Gordon Levitt.

[Maria Tremarki]

I love storytelling and I love you, so I can't wait.

[Arturo Castro]

Listen and subscribe to Greatest escapes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Maria Tremarki]

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

[Maria Tremarki]

Each season we explore a new theme, from poisoners to art thieves.

[Holly Fry]

We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching.

[Maria Tremarki]

And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story.

[Holly Fry]

Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Emilia]

I'm Emilia, host of the podcast Crumbs. For years, I had to rely on other people to tell me my story, and what I heard wasn't good. You really? Last night, it felt like I lived most of my life in a blackout. I was trapped in addiction. I had to grab the lamp and smashed it against the walls. And then I decided I wanted to tell my own story. Listen to crumbs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bloomberg Journalist]

I'm Dr. Laurie Santos, and to welcome the new year, my podcast the Happiness Lab is releasing a series of happiness how to Guides to help you in 2025, I'll distill the wisdom of world class experts into easy to digest, actionable tips. Struggling with tough emotions? We have a How to Guide. Worried that you're not enough? We got you self obsessed and want to get over yourself? There's a guide for that, too. The Happiness Lab's how to Season starts January 1st. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.