BC ARTISTS: Marion Elizabeth Jack

Marion Elizabeth Jack (Miss)

December 1 1866 - March 25 1954

B.C. Society of Fine Arts
Vancouver Sketch Club

Marion E. Jack was born in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1866. She studied art in Paris for a number of years, from about 1900 to 1907, and had ten of her paintings accepted into the Academy shows, and a few even "hung on the line." The Dictionary of British Artists lists her as exhibiting from 1898 to 1912: London 1898 and 1911; Paris 1901; Rye, Sussex 1902; eleven artworks with the Royal Society in Birmingham, and seven shown in the London Salon.

She was a long-time follower and proponent of the Baha'i faith, which she learned about when she was living in France.

She returned to Canada, and exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1908 and 1914, and at the Art Association of Montreal from 1908 to 1916.

She came to west to Vancouver in 1919, and went on an extended trip to Alaska, covering some 6,000 miles in the process (Jasion). After her return to Vancouver, she exhibited her work in the 1920 Annual Exhibition of the B.C. Society of Fine Arts, held at the Vancouver School Board offices on Hamilton Street. She exhibited more work the same year in at least three exhibitions with the Vancouver Sketch Club, winning a prize for a landscape in oil in one of the exhibitions.

The painting titled "Study of Miss J. Fripp" is a portrait of Thomas William Fripp's daughter Jocelyn Mary Fripp, who was born in Hatzic on September 8 1903 and passed away in Kamloops on May 18 1991.

After leaving Vancouver Jack ended up living and working in Bulgaria for a number of years, where she died and was buried in 1954.

Exhibitions

DATE	EXHIBITION	ARTWORK

1920 June	Vancouver Sketch Club Monthly Exhibition	(pictures)
1920 September	Vancouver Exhibition VSC Exhibition	(landscape)
		(part of loan exhibition)
1920 September 18 - 25	BCSFA Annual Exhibition	Study of Miss J. Fripp
		Savary Island
		The Old Favorites
1920 October 2	Vancouver Sketch Club Monthly Exhibition	(portrait)
		(portrait)
		(Palestine sketch)
		(Palestine sketch)
		(landscapes)

References

THE DICTIONARY OF BRITISH ARTISTS 1880 - 1940 (refer to DBA76)

ROYAL CANADIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS -
EXHIBITIONS & MEMBERS 1880 - 1979 (refer to RCA81)

MONTREAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS -
SPRING EXHIBITIONS 1880 - 1970 (refer to MM88)
17 works cited in 5 exhibitions for Jack 1908 - 1916.

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF ARTISTS IN CANADA (refer to BIAC03)
5 references cited for Jack, including MM and RCA above.

NEVER BE AFRAID TO DARE: the story of 'General Jack', Marion Elizabeth Jack, 1866-1954
      by Jan Teofil Jasion. Oxford: Publisher George Ronald, 2001.
      ISBN 9780853984498; 352 page book, 15 pages front matter, 24 pages of plates
      https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/9622917
      Includes extensive notes; exhibitions list; known works in collections
      Extensive compilation of information on friends and associates

Clippings

"Among the exhibits which were the subject of enthusiastic comment were the pictures of Miss Marion Jack, who has recently returned to Vancouver from Alaska, and who is a New Brunswick woman who has studied in the European schools. Her pictures are fresh and vivid. They display fine decorative feeling and are well painted."
From "Freshness and Vitality in Exhibition of Vancouver Sketch Club"
Western Woman's Weekly, June 5 1920

"Miss Jack got second prize for landscape in oils."
"In the Loan Exhibit members represented were ... Miss Marion Jack, ..."
From "Arts Clubs Active - Vancouver Sketch Club", by (unknown)
Western Woman's Weekly, September 18, 1920

"Miss Marion E. Jack showed two portrait studies, done at the club's evening life class, also landscapes in oil and water color, two of them being sketches done in Palestine."
From "Vancouver Sketch Club"
Western Woman's Weekly, October 9 1920