Katharine Maltwood
| Katharine Emma Maltwood | |
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Katharine Maltwood (1905) by Nico Jungman. Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery, Victoria BC
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| Born |
Katharine Emma Sapsworth April , 1878 Woodford Green |
| Died | July 29, 1961 (aged 83) Victoria, Canada |
| Nationality | British |
Katharine Emma Maltwood (née Sapsworth) was a writer and artist on the esoteric and occult. Throughout her childhood, she was reared to be an artist. Her parents were progressive, and they pushed each of their children equally to achieve their potential. In her formative years of art education, her artistic inclinations drew her into the fashionable Arts and Crafts Movement. Maltwood matriculated at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London (1896–97). Here, she studied sculpture.
She was fascinated by Buddhism, theosophy, Masonic rituals, Goddess Spirituality, and Egyptian culture. These topics of study were widely popular amongst the middle- and upper-class society in England during her lifetime. In addition, her extensive travel ventures made the objects of her spiritual curiosity accessible for her to learn and grasp auxiliary meanings, all of which inspired her sculpture.
In 1925, Maltwood was commissioned to draw a map outlining the adventures of the Knights of King Arthur and the Holy Grail, a subject made popular in the Victorian era by the Pre-Raphaelites and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. While researching, she claimed that the effigies of the zodiac were designed in a circle on the fields of Somerset—the very fields that the tales of King Arthur had transpired upon (Maltwood; 1944, p. 3). She devoted the rest of her life to researching, writing, and publicizing what she termed “Temple of the Stars.” Her theory regarding the zodiac was a combination of Sumerian, theosophy, Masonry, Egyptosophy, Early Christianity, and Rosicrucianism.
She moved to Victoria, Canada, in 1938 with her husband because of her disillusionment with the state of Europe. She was encouraged to join the local art community by her friend Ina Uhthoff, an established figure as an artist, an art teacher, and an administrator. Maltwood contributed two pieces to the 1941 annual exhibition of the Island Arts and Crafts Society. She entered two sculptures in the exhibition: The Fire God of Mount Rainier, an Indian profile; and Aspiration, a bronze figure. She encouraged her cousin Elizabeth Duer to exhibit.
Maltwood also enjoyed sketching. Her depictions of nature were influenced by Emily Carr, from whom she purchased paintings. Maltwood continued to sketch and sculpt until she died in 1961.
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