Doris McCarthy

Doris McCarthy was an acclaimed artist, writer, teacher, mentor, and beloved friend. Since her passing, McCarthy continues to be an inspiration to countless Canadians who have recognized her as one of the most cherished interpreters of our rugged landscape.

The Doris McCarthy Gallery is honoured to steward a robust collection of over 400 works by McCarthy in a variety of media and showcasing the artist's dynamic range. “The Doris McCarthy Fonds (1872-2011)” contains a comprehensive collection of biographical photographs and papers, exhibition materials, poems, and more. These documents provide rich content for researchers, writers, and artists seeking to learn more about McCarthy's impassioned life.

McCarthy was born July 7, 1910, in Calgary, Alberta and spent her youth living in the Beaches area of Toronto. In 1926 she earned a scholarship to the Ontario College of Art (OCA) where she was mentored by some of the premier Canadian artists of the early twentieth century, including both Arthur Lismer and JEH MacDonald. Soon after graduating from OCA in 1930, McCarthy’s works were exhibited in the 1931 Ontario Society of Artists’ (OSA) Annual Exhibition. She achieved her membership to the Society in 1945 and later went on to become OSA Vice President from 1961 to 1964 and President from 1964 to 1967. She would continue to establish her position as one of Toronto’s major emerging artists to be later recognized as one of Canada’s foremost landscape painters. 

Doris McCarthy has received many awards and distinctions throughout her career. Holding memberships in the Royal Canadian Academy of Artists (1951) and the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour (1952, and for which she served as President from 1956 to 1958), earning five Honorary Doctorates from five different Canadian Universities from 1995 to 2002, and inductions into the Order of Ontario (1992) and the Order of Canada (1986), her place in the canon of great Canadian artists has been solidified. McCarthy was also a lifelong learner and graduated from the University of Toronto Scarborough in 1989 with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree. A passionate writer, she penned three autobiographies chronicling her life: A Fool in Paradise, The Good Wine, and Ninety Years Wise. 

Though immersed in the dedicated pursuit of her creative passion, Doris McCarthy always made time for others. She was often surrounded by close family and friends, and shared her zest for life, painting, and effervescent conversation. McCarthy’s sense of adventure and her compassionate encouragement of others created a personal aura dating back to her days as a Canadian Girls in Training camp counsellor, to her forty years of teaching art at Toronto’s Central Technical School (1932–1972), and continuing throughout her lifetime. Yet, mirrored in her amiable sociability was also a great appreciation of solitude that McCarthy found while painting landscapes around the world. During 1951, on sabbatical, she spent a year painting full-time in Europe. Doris also embarked on a solo tour in 1961 to Asia, painting in locations such as Thailand, Cambodia, India, Afghanistan, Iraq, and countless other countries. However, it has always been Canada that figured most splendidly and most often in Doris’s work and in her affections. Some of her early painting trips involved adventures in Muskoka, Haliburton, Georgian Bay, and the Arctic with groups of other devoted artists. Using primarily thick oils and watercolours, McCarthy developed her unique style during her explorations, investigating hard-edged angles, form, and colour with a skilled and bold hand.

When the Doris McCarthy Gallery opened at the University of Toronto Scarborough in 2004, McCarthy stated that the honour was the climax of her professional career. She responded in kind by promising a major selection of her paintings for the Gallery’s Permanent Collection. On the occasion of McCarthy’s hundredth birthday in the summer of 2010, the Doris McCarthy Gallery celebrated with Roughing It in the Bush, a spectacular exhibit curated by Nancy Campbell and co-presented with the University of Toronto Art Centre. McCarthy actively participated in the exhibition’s creation by offering her creative knowledge throughout the planning process. Upon seeing an advance copy of the exhibition catalogue, she clasped the book to her chest and declared it “a triumph!” The exhibition’s opening festivities — including a heartfelt rendition of “Happy Birthday”— were recorded and McCarthy was able to enjoy the events through a live video feed that she viewed from Fool’s Paradise, her home atop of the Scarborough Bluffs. Doris McCarthy’s personal and artistic legacy is unparalleled, thanks to her ground-breaking artistry and the amount of dedication and heartfelt passion with which she lived her life.

From her condensed memoir My Life, Doris McCarthy reflects upon her personal journey:

“So here I am, content to enjoy every day as it comes, and wise enough to thank God for his mercies and rejoice in them. My only regrets are my economies (never my extravagances) – particularly those of spirit and love.”