Best known for her portraits of mothers and children, Laura Adeline Muntz Lyall was born in Warwickshire, England in 1860 and immigrated with her family to Canada shortly after, settling in a farm in the Muskoka area in Ontario. Woman and children were one of Muntz’s favourite themes. This was a genre popular at the time, but Muntz’s extensive exploration of this theme was heartfelt, and her paintings depicted her subjects sensitively, candidly and naturally.
Lyall studied to become a school teacher, but in the process she became interested in art, and it led her to take lessons in painting from artist William Charles Foster, who recognized her talent. She studied for a year at the Ontario School of Art, and afterward, traveled to England to study at St. John’s Wood Art School in London. In 1891, Muntz went to Paris, France and studied at the Académie Colarossi. While there, she was influenced by Impressionism, but also affected by Old Master artists such as Rembrandt. She was there for seven years altogether, and exhibited in the Paris Salon exhibitions. This marked the beginning of the second period of Muntz’s work, and a solidification of her authority in portraying her subjects.
When Muntz returned to Canada in 1898, she set up a studio in Toronto. She also became an associate of the Royal College of Art. Muntz typically isolated her subjects against a dark background, to show the importance of the figure; a way of painting that is quite traditional in style. Although figurative work was the core of her oeuvre, she also painted landscapes and genre scenes such as Dutch subjects.
Muntz moved to New York in 1904, but after returning to Canada, she decided to live in Montreal. This was a successful period for the artist, and she loved the vibrancy of the culture there. In 1914 she returned to Toronto and married, while continuing her painting.
Muntz was one of the first Canadian women artists to receive recognition outside of Canada – her works were exhibited in the United States and in France. In 1895, she was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and was only the eighth woman to receive this honour. In 1891, she became a member of the Ontario Society of Artists and was appointed the first female member of its Executive Council from 1899 to 1903. Her work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery and many others.