Pegi by Herself: The Life of Pegi Nichol MacLeod, Canadian Artist. Laura Brandon. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005; 246 pages; ISBN 0-77352-8636; $39.95 (cloth).
Other than Emily Carr, whose curious lifestyle and own prolific writings saved her from obscurity, most Canadian women artists of the early twentieth century have been all but eclipsed by the Group of Seven narrative that overwhelms this nation's art history. In Pegi by Herself: The Life of Pegi Nichol MacLeod, Canadian Artist, Laura Brandon revives the life of a painter, teacher, wife and mother who, despite the challenges she faced, made a significant contribution to the direction of Canadian art. Brandon's account is presented as a chronological unfolding of Nicol MacLeod's life, from her birth in 1904 in small-town southwestern Ontario to her untimely death in New York City at the age of forty-four. She tells the story of a bohemian character who struggled to balance her career with the restrictions of being a woman in early twentieth-century Canada; a thorough picture of Nicol MacLeod is constructed through reference to letters, photographs and autobiographical paintings. While the biography seems to be aimed at a general rather than art history audience, and interpretation of Nichol MacLeod's work is kept to a minimum, Brandon's art historical training is evident in her penetrating analyses of the photographic documents of the artist's life, which is used to make postulations about the artist's character and disposition. The vivid portrait that results is an intriguing read; it conveys an engaging picture of Nicol MacLeod's struggles for success at a time when artistic triumphs did not come easily to women.
Brandon's depiction is one of an artist who was forward-thinking, who worked within an aesthetic that many laypeople found unconventional, and who therefore faced doubts about her own work over the course of her career. The author offers a detailed image

www.msvu.ca/atlantis PR Atlantis 30.2, 2006

143

of these tribulations by referring to primary documentation such as contemporaneous reviews of Nicol MacLeod's exhibitions and the artist's own writings. A Montreal Star reviewer is quoted as observing that "Miss Nicol is making her own way of painting, and some of the pictures seem to be experiments of which the results do not quite carry out her intentions" (52); while reference to a 1942 letter from Nicol MacLeod to her friend and colleague Madge Smith provides "I am trying hard in between house cleaning to finish up a lot of my paintings. I can't tell you how poor I found them when I expected them to seem very beautiful" (160). Because Brandon recounts the difficulties that Nicol MacLeod faced in such depth (a necessary step towards creating a layered and colourful portrait of her subject) while keeping the art historical analysis of her paintings to a relative minimum, at times these somewhat disconsolate sentiments seem to overwhelm the artist's achievements and place in Canadian art history.
Yet Brandon's regard for her subject's work seems undoubted - in early 2005, Pegi Nicol MacLeod: A Life in Art, an exhibition curated by Brandon, opened at the Carleton University Art Gallery and went on to travel to three other Canadian venues. This exhibition, which brought together more than fifty of Nicol MacLeod's paintings and works on paper, is a notable celebration of the artist's achievements. Perhaps it is by considering the biography and exhibition together, however, that we can best understand Nichol MacLeod as a woman whose remarkable artistic achievements were but one part of a complex and multifaceted life.
Michelle Jacques Art Gallery of Ontario