Sydney Strickland Tully


Sydney Strickland Tully was a Canadian academic painter. 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, an oil painting in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Biography

Sydney Strickland Tully was born and raised in Toronto, the child of Maria Strickland and Kivas Tully. Maria Strickland was a niece of Susanna Moodie and Kivas Tully was a prominent architect. Tully's sister, Louise Beresford Tully, was also a Toronto-based artist who operated a Yonge Street Arcade-based teaching studio Tully's early studies took place at the Central Ontario School of Art, Toronto, under Charlotte Schreiber and William Cruikshank. In 1884 she went to London to continue her education at the Slade School of Art, where she studied under Alphonse Legros. Further studies took place in Paris at the Académie Julien and the Académie Colarossi. 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.

Career

Tully began her career colouring photographs and designing Christmas cards, and she worked with a variety of mediums including oil and pastel. She later became well-known for her landscapes, genre-scenes and portraits. Tully kept a studio in Toronto, 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, the Netherlands and the Jersey Channel Islands. Tully wrote articles for The Globe on European affairs, and she illustrated a children's book which was published after her death in 1911.

Legacy

Tully bequeathed her award-winning painting, The Twilight of Life, to the Art Gallery of Ontario. It became the first painting by a Canadian artist acquired by the gallery. A second work, Evening on the Vaal, was acquired by the AGO by subscription in 1912.

Art market

In recent years Tully's work has appeared occasionally at auction, reaching modest prices.

Awards

For her painting The Twilight of Life, Tully won an honorable mention at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo and a bronze medal at the Saint Louis Exposition. She was elected a member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1889, and became an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts the same year.

Major collections

Tully's work is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, National Gallery of Canada, and Museum London.

Major exhibitions

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, 1892-1909; the Toronto Industrial Exhibition, 1888; and the Royal Academy of Arts, 1896-97.

Works