Bess Larkin Housser Harris
The paintings by Bess Harris record more than just the physical features of a place—they capture its spirit. Largely untrained, she was not restrained or impeded by the influence of a particular instructor or academic convention, allowing for her direct, intuitive response to the landscape. She was a spiritual person, and her brightly coloured, dynamically composed landscapes can best be described as sublime.
Born Bess Larkin in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1890, she attended boarding school at Havergal College in Toronto. In 1914, she married Fred Housser, an art critic and editorial writer for The Toronto Daily Star who was an early champion of the Group of Seven. Bess Housser soon became deeply embedded in the Canadian art community, despite not having attended art school. In addition to being an art collector, she was also a critic. Her column, “In the Realm of Art,” ran in Canadian Bookman from 1924 to 1926 and championed progressive artists and emerging modernist ideas.
In 1926, she began exhibiting art publicly as an invited contributor to Group of Seven shows. Her paintings were later shown with the Ontario Society of Artists, at the Canadian National Exhibition, with the Canadian Group of Painters, and internationally at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. She excelled at painting the outdoors and travelled to the Rocky Mountains every year to paint the craggy snow-covered peaks.
Following her divorce from Fred Housser in the early 1930s, Bess married the artist Lawren Harris. Together they lived and painted in New Hampshire and New Mexico before settling in Vancouver. During these years, both artists turned increasingly toward abstraction, united by a belief “that there is a realm of spiritual realism that informs all great works of art,” and that such works can give life “a meaning that answers the higher aspirations of the soul.”1
In addition to her own artistic practice, Harris remained a dedicated advocate for her husband’s work. In the final year of her life, she collaborated with R.G.P. Colgrove to edit Lawren Harris, 1969, the first major monograph on his art. Although her legacy has often been overshadowed, Bess Harris’s contributions as both a writer and painter are significant. Her small but compelling body of work affirms her place as an artist of vision and independence deserving of recognition in her own right.
1. Lawren Harris, quoted in Bess Harris and R.G.P. Colgrave, eds., Lawren Harris (Toronto: Macmillan, 1969), 3.
Mountain Sketch
1928–29
In 1928, Bess Housser (later Harris) embarked on a sketching trip in Banff, Alberta, with the artists Isabel McLaughlin and Yvonne McKague (later Housser). Housser Harris painted this evocative sketch of the peak of Mount Babel seated a few yards away from McKague, who painted the same subject from a slightly different vantage point.
“I love the mountain country more than any country I have yet been in. They are utterly unlike what I expected to find,” Housser wrote to Doris Mills in 1928. She described the mountain country as creating “the friendliest mood of any land I know. I feel I could live in them and amongst them—alone and unlonely—I have never felt so free and so needless of fear with Nature.”
These sketching sojourns were important for artists, who found both camaraderie and inspiration working alongside their peers. Housser Harris eventually gave this sketch to McKague, who donated it to the McMichael in 1974.
Bess Larkin Housser Harris (1890–1969), Mountain Sketch, 1928–29, oil on wood panel, 27 x 34.6 cm, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, gift of Yvonne McKague Housser. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.
Above Moraine Lake
c. 1929
Housser Harris’s large-scale canvas is similar in subject and scale to the famed mountain paintings by Lawren Harris, the artist’s husband after 1934.
Like Harris’s work, Housser Harris’s painting expresses a deep and spiritual experience of the landscape of the Rocky Mountains, but where Harris’s canvases are geometric and cool, hers is sumptuous and fleshy.
Bess Larkin Housser Harris (1890–1969), Above Moraine Lake, c. 1929, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 139.1 cm, courtesy of Loch Gallery.
Lawren and Bess Harris at Parker Ridge, Jasper, Alberta, c. 1947. Photo attributed to Ira Dilworth. Courtesy of Stewart Sheppard.
Day’s End
c. 1928
In 1931, Housser Harris joined Yvonne McKague on another trip. This time the pair travelled with Isabel McLaughlin to Cobalt, Ontario—a mining boomtown that rose to prominence in the early twentieth century following the discovery of vast silver deposits.
This visit marked a high point in her exploration of atmosphere and mood in her work. During her time in Cobalt, she developed material for two of her most significant easel paintings: Old Mine Shaft, Cobalt, 1931, and Day’s End, c. 1932 (pictured left).
In Day’s End, Housser traces the diagonal sweep of one of the town’s winding hillside streets, capturing both an overcast sky and the fading light of dusk, a transitional moment in Cobalt’s daily rhythm.
Bess Larkin Housser Harris (1890–1969), Day’s End, c. 1928, oil on canvas, collection of Katia and John Bianchini. Photo: Craig Boyko.
related articles
David Hartman Captures Sandra Brewster’s Creative Process in New Short Film
November 6, 2025Back in 2021, the McMichael teamed up with the Koerner Foundation and the acclaimed Canadian filmmaker David Hartman to create a series of short documentaries that pull back the curtain on the lives and practices of some of Canada’s most celebrated contemporary artists represented in the McMichael’s collection. Each film offers an intimate glimpse into their studios and landscapes, inviting us to listen as they share stories of creativity, process, and the inspirations that shape their work.
Kananginak Pootoogook, Two Caribou, 2008–2009
November 10, 2025Two Caribou, 2008–2009, by Kananginak Pootoogook (1935–2010), is a rich example of contemporary drawing from Kinngait (formerly Cape Dorset), Nunavut, depicting two bull caribou locked in battle, perhaps over a mate. Hooves fly and antlers clash, lending a sense of immediacy to the conflict.
Native Art Department International, Aanzinaago (Caught in a Transformation) 01, 2024
November 10, 2025Last year at Art Toronto we acquired Aanzinaago (Caught in a Transformation) 01, 2024, by Native Art Department International (NADI), for the collection at the McMichael. NADI is a collaborative long-term project created and administered by the Ojibwe Anishinaabe performance artist, sculptor, and mixed-media artist Maria Hupfield (b. 1975) and the Chiricahua Apache and Mexican multimedia artist Jason Lujan (b. 1971).
Kent Monkman, Compositional Study for “tâpwêwin (Truth),” 2025
December 23, 2025Kent Monkman (b. 1965) is a leading Cree visual artist from Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory, Manitoba, and is currently based in Toronto. Compositional Study for “tâpwêwin (Truth),” 2025, is part of Monkman’s new Knowledge Keeper series, a body of work examining the history and enduring impact of Canada’s residential school system.
Director’s Choice: Lucy Qinnuayuak
January 5, 2026One of the pleasures of exploring the Kinngait Drawings Archive is discovering works by artists who may not have the household name recognition they deserve. Lucy Qinnuayuak (1915–1982) is one such artist.
Close to Home
February 1, 2026Close to Home brings together paintings, drawings, and prints by the Group of Seven and related artists, all inspired by the landscapes of Southern Ontario.
Director’s Choice: Tom Thomson
March 4, 2026Tom Thomson’s sketch and canvas depicting Algonquin Park during the spring thaw are among the most prized holdings of the McMichael.
Stan Douglas: Tales of Empire
March 4, 2026With Stan Douglas: Tales of Empire, the McMichael presents a focused survey of the artist’s work, bringing together key projects that relate to the enduring impositions and contradictions of empire.
Kenojuak Ashevak at the McMichael
March 12, 2026Look back at the McMichael’s history with the renowned artist Kenojuak Ashevak and her time spent at the gallery.
Director’s Choice: J.E.H. MacDonald, Lichen-Covered Shale Slabs, 1930
April 1, 2026Explore how this striking work reveals J.E.H. MacDonald’s bold and experimental late style, capturing the physical intensity and modernist vision of his encounters with the Canadian Rockies.
Aaron Jones, Lithic, 2026
April 1, 2026A newly installed work by Toronto artist Aaron Jones transforms the Grand Hall—discover how Lithic layers image, material, and meaning to explore identity, resilience, and the search for grounding.
Melanie Authier, Venture Myth, 2023
May 7, 2026Melanie Authier’s dynamic abstract paintings create immersive spaces charged with movement, light, and shifting sensation. Highlighting a recent acquisition to the McMichael’s collection, this article explores how Authier transforms memory, atmosphere, and the language of painting into richly layered contemporary abstraction.
Excerpt from Uses of Enchantment
May 7, 2026Marking the third anniversary of Uses of Enchantment: Art and Environmentalism, this article revisits Shary Boyle’s haunting explorations of apocalypse, fantasy, and environmental anxiety. Featuring an excerpt by writer Ruth Jones, it examines how Boyle’s imaginative works reflect contemporary fears surrounding climate change and ecological collapse.
Director’s Choice: David Milne, Passing Car, 1913
May 7, 2026In this Director’s Choice essay, Sarah Milroy explores David Milne’s Passing Car, 1913, a vibrant depiction of modern New York painted at the height of the artist’s early career. The article considers Milne’s innovative painterly language, his complicated relationship with urban life, and the lasting significance of this rare surviving city scene in the McMichael collection.