signed & dated lower right
Anna Gertrude Lawson was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia. After spending part of her childhood in Cuba, she studied broadly: at Tulane University, Newcomb Art School (New Orleans, LA); medical art illustration at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore MD); Rockport Summer School (Rockport MA); Ontario College Summer School (under J. W. Beatty); Art Association of Ottawa (under Franklin Brownell); Art Association of Montreal; privately and at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston MA. In 1924, she married Dr. Hill Harrison Cheney. The couple later moved to Vancouver, where Nan Lawson Cheney spent her professional career. The artist’s work was exhibited broadly, including at the Art Association of Montreal, The Art Gallery of Ontario (RCA), the National Gallery (Ottawa) and the Vancouver Art Gallery. She taught at the Banff School of Fine Art (1936) and at the University of British Columbia (1951-1962). Nan Lawson Cheney developed personal relationships with many artists, including Lawren Harris, Jock MacDonald, and her dear friend Emily Carr (whom she met in 1927). Her correspondence with Carr is well documented in “Dear Nan: Letters of Emily Carr, Nan Cheney, and Humphrey” (UBC Press; 1990).
