Nora Collyer

Nora Frances Elizabeth Collyer (June 7, 1898 - June 11, 1979) was a Canadian modernist painter who was heavily inspired by the Canadian landscape, nature, and urban communities. Both an artist and a teacher, she received her formal art training at the Art Association of Montreal (AAM), where she studied under Alberta Cleland, William Brymner, and Maurice Cullen. Nora Collyer was the youngest of the ten women artists who today are commonly referred to as the Beaver Hall Group. Aside from being an artist and a teacher, she was also a volunteer for the Children's Memorial Hospital of Montreal. Collyer's work was exhibited at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, England, in 1924 and 1925, as well as at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

Collyer was born in Montreal, Quebec on June 7, 1898. Her father, Alfred Collyer (1872-1946) left England at the age of sixteen, and after graduating from McGill University, he joined the General Electric Company of Canada. Around the time of Nora's birth, the family moved to Tupper Street in Westmount, a suburb of Montreal, where they lived until 1916. In her youth, Collyer attended Trafalgar School for Girls from 1910 until her graduation in 1917. Collyer, an only child until the age of twelve, and very shy, benefited from the small classes and intimate atmosphere of a private school. Two girls whom she’d met there, Margaret Taylor and Jane Speir, became her life long friends.

Collyer, along with other artists Anne Savage, Sarah Robertson, Mabel Lockerby, and Kathleen Morris, received virtually all their professional training at the Art Association of Montreal (AAM). Collyer studied for nine years at the AAM with Alberta Cleland, William Brymner, and Maurice Cullen. Brymner, who was a director for thirty-five years, had previously trained in Paris at the Académie Julian and organized the Montreal school on the Parisian model. Brymner's emphasis on the importance of self expression and enthusiasm for new developments became greatly evident in Collyer's work.

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