Background
Lilias Torrance Newton was born in Lachine, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal, in 1896. Her parents, Alice Mary Stewart and Forbes Torrance, were prominent Montreal figures. An old sketchbook of her father"s is thought to be an early artistic inspiration.
Education
She attended classes given by William Brymner at the Art Association of Montreal, and later studied with Alfred Wolmark in London and Alexandre Jacovleff in Paris.
Career
During the First World War, she worked for the Red Cross in England. She taught at her alma mater, the Art Association of Montreal, and received an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Toronto. Newton is best known for her portraits, over 300 in her career, including her 1957 portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
Newton was the first known Canadian commissioned to make a portrait of either subject.
Her portraits were known to be psychological in nature. Lilias Torrance Newton died in Cowansville, Quebec in 1980.
Her work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Glenbow Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Hart House at the University of Toronto, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Canadian War Museum, and other public institutions in Canada.
Membership
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts]
She was also a founding member of the Beaver Hall Group and the Canadian Group of Painters.