Earl Bailly

Bailly was born in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in 1903. His father, John, was a blacksmith and his mother, Willietta, a schoolteacher.{{cite book |last1=Marble |first1=Allan Everett |title=Nova Scotians at Home and Abroad: Including Biographical Sketches of Over Six Hundred Native Born Nova Scotians |date=1977 |publisher=Lancelot Press |isbn=978-0-88999-074-6 |page=51 |url=https://archive.org/details/novascotiansatho0000marb/page/50/mode/2up?q=Bailly |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Bird |first1=Will R. |author1-link=Will R. Bird |title=This is Nova Scotia |date=1950 |publisher=Ryerson Press |isbn=978-1-01-389438-1 |pages=176–177 |url=https://archive.org/details/thisisnovascotia00bird/page/176/mode/2up?q=Bailly |language=en}} He had four siblings, George, Rayburn, Margaret and Donald.{{cite book |last1=Baily |first1=Suzanne |last2=Stonely |first2=Penny |title=Lunenburg Academy Yearbook 1967 |date=1967 |publisher=Lunenburg Academy |page=61 |url=https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/31712816/files/uploaded/1967.pdf |chapter=Some Notes on the Bailly Family in Lunenburg }} When he was three years old he contracted polio, and this made him a quadriplegic for the rest of his life.{{cite book |last1=Deveau |first1=Leo J. |title=400 Years in 365 Days: A Day by Day Calendar of Nova Scotia History |date=2017 |publisher=Formac Publishing Company |isbn=978-1-4595-0480-6 |page=117 |url=https://archive.org/details/400yearsin365day0000deve/page/116/mode/2up?q=Bailly |language=en}} George and an uncle, Bert, also caught the disease, but not as bad.{{cite news |last1=Clarke |first1=Heather Laura |title=Bailly's art up for grabs |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1814980430 |access-date=2 July 2024 |work=The Chronicle Herald |date=29 August 2016|id={{ProQuest|1814980430}}}} Earl was educated by his mother. He learned to write, then draw, by holding a pen in his mouth, and won a drawing contest in a newspaper. His mother said "His father and I tried to interest Earl in other things. We felt that he was headed for disappointment. But the other children knew

better. They set up drawing boards for him — until I gave in."

By the time Bailly was ten, he was painting with watercolours. His family adapted his wheelchair so he could do oil-paintings. He studied with artist George Pearse Ennis in Maine, and took further art-studies in New York, gaining recognition. He traveled widely with his brother Donald, exhibiting his art in Canada, the US and Bermuda.{{cite news |title=Mouth and Foot Painted Cards Popular in Canada |url=https://archive.org/details/CMJ_1964110401/page/n1/mode/2up?q=Bailly |work=The Coleman journal |publisher=H.F. Legg |date=4 November 1964 |language=English}} He also learned how to linocut, though he found this too strenuous.{{cite news |last1=O'Connell |first1=Ann |title=Remembering Earl Bailly; Lunenburg artist famous for oil paintings |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1774571475 |access-date=2 July 2024 |work=The Chronicle Herald |date=7 October 2015|id={{ProQuest|1774571475}} }} People who acquired his paintings included Canadian prime ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and John Diefenbaker, Elizabeth II, whom Bailly met twice, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

File:EB painting.webp

In 1933, Earl and Donald traveled to the Chicago World's Fair on the schooner Bluenose. According to Donald's daughter, "My dad made sure Earl had all of the adventures he wanted to have. Everyone – his brothers, my grandparents – made sure he had a real life." Earl said "Don has given me everything."

Bailly had visited Bermuda three times by 1967. In 1963 he attended the opening of a Bailly gallery at Shelly Bay. Apart from paintings, the gallery also displayed a few of his linocuts.{{cite news |title=Cripple Artist Has Many Fans |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/calgary-herald/71303626/ |work=Calgary Herald |date=9 June 1967}}

Canadian writer Will R. Bird said of Bailly "... one of Canada's better artists ... an inspiration to any person, how gifted he may be." According to The Saturday Evening Post in 1949, "Physicians prize his work the most. They find more curative power for crippled, handicapped patients in one Bailly canvas than in a whole chestful of medicines."{{cite news |last1=Nicholson |first1=Arnold |title=Courage on canvas |work=The Saturday Evening Post |date=3 May 1949 |page=17|issn=0048-9239}} ARTnews said of a New York exhibition in 1949 that "His brightly colored land scapes and seascapes, painted around Nova Scotia, exuded cheer and strength and — incredibly enough — The Cut and Blue and Gold, whose choppy, impasto strokes are bound into solid compositions, well-deserved reactions of delight."{{cite news |title=Art News 1949–05: Vol 48 Iss 3 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_artnews_1949-05_48_3/page/48/mode/2up?q=Bailly |work=ARTnews |date=1949}} In 1954, foot-and-mouth painter Peter Spencer saw an example of Bailly's art, and this inspired him to display his own work. Spencer was a former WWII-pilot who had lost the use of his arms in a crash.{{cite news |last1=Waugh |first1=Eileen |title=The courage of Peter Spencer: Day 4 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005475/19701001/005/0005 |access-date=2 July 2024 |work=Liverpool Daily Post |date=1 October 1970|via=British Newspaper Archive}}{{cite web |title=Painting of Starways Aircraft G-APZB |url=https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/painting-of-starways-aircraft-g-apzb |publisher=National Museums Liverpool |access-date=2 July 2024}} The town of Lunenburg says "An inspiration to others in overcoming physical challenges to lead a full, productive life."

The Bailly House, where he lived and had his studio until his death in 1977, is recognized as a historic place by the Canadian Register of Historic Places.{{cite web |title=Bailly House |url=https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=1533 |website=Canadian Register of Historic Places |access-date=28 June 2024}}{{cite book |last1=Brian |first1=Cuthbertson |title=Lunenburg: An Illustrated History |year=1996 |publisher=Formac Publishing Company Limited |isbn=978-0-88780-358-1 |page=64 |url=https://archive.org/details/lunenburgillustr0000cuth/page/64/mode/2up?q=Bailly |language=en}} The Pelham Street house is the oldest building in Lunenburg,{{cite book |last1=Hempstead |first1=Andrew |title=Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island For Dummies |year= 2012 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-68079-7 |page=132 |url=https://archive.org/details/novascotianewbru0003hemp/page/132/mode/2up?q=Bailly |language=en}} and his brother Donald continued living there after Earl died.{{cite book |last1=Lightbody |first1=Mark |last2=Berkmoes |first2=Ryan Ver |last3=Huhti |first3=Thomas |title=Canada |date=1999 |publisher=Lonely Planet |isbn=978-0-86442-752-6 |page=496 |url=https://archive.org/details/canada0000ligh/page/496/mode/2up?q=Bailly |language=en}}

• {{cite book |last1=Bailly |first1=Earl |title=Earl Bailly – His Trials and Triumphs |date=1957 |url=https://www.lunenburgartgallery.com/_files/ugd/4b66e8_4e2184602e86415bb20f624200cfb7df.pdf}}

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• {{cite book |last=Barkhouse |first=Murray |date=1994 |title=Famous Nova Scotians |url=https://archive.org/details/famousnovascotia0000bark |location=Hantsport, NS |publisher=Lancelot Press |pages=136–137 |isbn=0-8899-9545-1}}

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• [https://www.lunenburgartgallery.com/earl-bailly The Earl Bailly Collection] at The Lunenburg Art Gallery Society
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H1g8sgAAvg On the Shores of Nova Scotia], 1947 short film featuring Bailly by James A. FitzPatrick

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Category:Canadian male painters

Category:Polio survivors

Category:1903 births

Category:1977 deaths

Category:People from Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia

Category:Mouth and foot painting artists

Category:Canadian artists with disabilities

Category:Artists from Nova Scotia