Hortense Gordon (1886-1961) Canadian, Abstract Oil on Canvas. Signed on bottom. Dated 1942 on the back along with other writing. 

Overall Size: 16 x 9 1/4 in. 

Sight Size: 11 x 4 1/4 in. 

Hortense Crompton Mattice Gordon was born on November 24th, 1886 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and began attending Saturday morning art classes at the Hamilton Art School at the age of six. In 1903 she moved to Chatham where she learned how to paint china and began selling her own pieces from a home studio. She worked as a teacher for Hamilton Technical School and became known for painting landscapes before joining the staff of the Hamilton Art School in 1916, eventually marrying John Gordon and traveling to Europe where her work was heavily influenced by the Barbizon School. After the death of her husband in 1940 her work radically evolved into more and more abstract styles while studying under expressionist Hans Hofmann at Branbrook Academy of Art, and she abandoned realism to explore Cubist-inspired forms and energetic, non-objective compositions. This transition led her to become the oldest founding member of the Painters Eleven, where she gained national recognition and exhibited her work in New York and Toronto, but she remained a dedicated educator in Hamilton and was eventually honored as a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts before her death due to emphysema on November 6th, 1961. 

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