Background
Sydney Strickland Tully was born and raised in Toronto, the child of Maria Strickland and Kivas Tully.
Sydney Strickland Tully was born and raised in Toronto, the child of Maria Strickland and Kivas Tully.
In 1884 she went to London to continue her education at the Slade School of Art, where she studied under Alphonse Legros.
She is known for her pastel and oil portraits, landscapes and genre pictures, and for her success in a number of academic exhibitions. Tully kept a studio in Toronto from 1888 until her death. Her major works include The Twilight of Life (1894), an oil painting in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Maria Strickland was a niece of Susanna Moodie.
Tully"s father Kivas Tully was a prominent architect. Tully"s early studies took place at the Central Ontario School of Art (later OCAD University), Toronto, under William Cruikshank.
Further studies took place in Paris at the Académie Julien (under Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant and Tony Robert-Fleury, ) and the Académie Colarossi (under Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois). Later studies took place at the Long Island Art School under William Merritt Chase.
Sydney Strickland Tully died on July 18, 1911 in Toronto, of pernicious anemia.
Tully kept a studio in Toronto (from 1888), where she taught regular classes, and participated steadily in the artistic life of the city. She also travelled internationally to paint and to participate in exhibitions, including sojourns in London (1895), and in Holland and Jersey (1906-1908). Tully bequeathed her award-winning painting, The Twilight of Life, to the Art Gallery of Ontario.
lieutenant became the first painting by a Canadian artist acquired by the gallery (1911).
A second work, Evening on the Vaal, was acquired by the AGO by subscription in 1912. In recent years Tully"s work has appeared occasionally at auction, reaching modest prices.
Tully"s work is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, National Gallery of Canada, and Museum London. Tully exhibited regularly with the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
She participated in numerous other exhibitions, including the Art Association of Montreal (precursor to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts), 1892-1909.
The Toronto Industrial Exhibition (precursor to the Canadian National Exhibition, 1890-1910. The World"s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The Salon (Paris), 1888.
And the Royal Academy of Arts, 1896-1897.