Berthe des Clayes, 1877 – 1968
Born in Scotland, Canadian artist Berthes des Clayes first studied at the Bushey School of Art in England before going on to the Académie Julien in Paris. She lived in London from 1906 to 1912, when she came to Canada and settled in Montreal, setting up a studio in Beaver Hall Square, a favourite haunt for artists and architects.
In ‘Landscape with Horse and Wagon’, des Clayes illustrates a favourite theme of hers; that of the horse and wagon. Winding away along a country road toward a hilly landscape, its view past a blaze of orange foliage is evocative of the rural areas north of Montreal which she and so many others would have been familiar with.