Florence Carlyle

Who was Florence Carlyle?

Florence Carlyle was a Canadian figure and portrait painter in the modernist style and was known especially as a colorist. Born in Galt, Ontario, she was raised in Woodstock, Ontario, where her father was the county inspector of schools. Florence's great-uncle was Thomas Carlyle. Sensing her daughter's art talent, Florence's mother arranged for an art teacher from New York City to provide lessons in an art studio set up to encourage her daughter's talents.

At age 26, in 1890, Florence Carlyle went to Paris where she studied at the Académie Julian under William Bouguereau, Jules Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury. In 1893 she exhibited her paintings at the Royal Academy, and three years later she returned to Canada.

She had studios in London and Woodstock, and in 1897 became the first woman to be elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy. In 1899, she established a studio in New York City.

The last twenty years of her life were spent in Crowborough, Sussex, England where she and a friend, Julie Hastings, bought an English cottage they called "Sweet Haws".

Florence Carlyle died at Crowborough in the spring of 1923. Most of her work is in the collection of the Woodstock Art Gallery in Woodstock, Ontario.