Maria Morris Miller

{{Short description|Canadian artist (1813–1875)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Maria Morris Miller

| image = MariaMorrisNovaScotiaArchives.png

| occupation = Artist

| image_size = 180px

| caption =

| nationality =

| birth_place = Halifax, Nova Scotia

| birth_date = February 12, 1813

| death_date = October 29, 1875

| death_place = Halifax, Nova Scotia

| spouse = Garrett Miller

| parents = Guy and Sybilla Morris

| known_for = Botanical lithographs

| children =

}}

Maria Morris Miller (1813–1875) was a Canadian artist from Halifax, Nova Scotia who is known for her botanical paintings and illustrations. She presented her work to Queen Victoria and received royal patronage for life.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/womenofcanadathe00unse/page/224 |page=224 |title=Women of Canada: their life and work |date=1900 |publisher=s.n. |via=Internet Archive}} She is also the first professional woman artist in Nova Scotia, recognized in her field during her active career years.{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/maria-morris-miller |title=Maria Morris Miller |first=Danielle |last=DiFruscia |encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia |edition=online |publisher=Historica Canada |date=September 8, 2023 |access-date=2018-03-31}} She worked with scientists and government officials, garnering her accolades as the "Audubon of Nova Scotian field flowers".{{cite journal |last=Guildford |first=Janet |date=1995 |title=Maria Morris Miller: The Many Functions of her Art |url=https://atlantisjournal.ca/index.php/atlantis/article/view/4155/3399 |journal=Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=113–124}}

Career

Born into a middle class family, Miller's mother Sybilla encouraged her to learn about art.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=kAS6AAAAIAAJ&q=Maria+Morris+Miller |title=Social History |volume=30 |page=11 |publisher=University of Ottawa Press |year=1997}} Miller studied her craft in Halifax first at a school run by Eliza Thresher on Salter Street,{{Cite book |last=Cronin |first=Ray |url=https://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/halifax-art-and-artists/key-artists/maria-morris-miller/ |title=Halifax Art & Artists: An Illustrated History |publisher=Art Canada Institute |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-4871-0315-6 |location=Toronto |language=English}} and later under the tutelage of a visiting British painter named L'Estrange. She also studied with W.H. Jones, a Bostonian who taught at Dalhousie College.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UgrrAAAAMAAJ&q=Maria+Morris+Miller | title=From Women's Eyes: Women Painters in Canada : Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston, 12 Dec. 1975 to 1 Feb. 1976| publisher=Agnes Etherington Art Centre| last1=Farr| first1=Dorothy| last2=Luckyj| first2=Natalie| year=1975}} In 1830, she began offering drawing classes to female students which gave her some financial independence.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4LW7y8EQQUcC&q=Maria+Morris+Miller&pg=PA24 | title=Rethinking Professionalism: Women and Art in Canada, 1850–1970| isbn=978-0-7735-8683-3| last1=Huneault| first1=Kristina| last2=Anderson| first2=Janice| date=2012-04-11| publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP}}{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W9DpsO-tjKYC&q=Maria+Morris+Miller | title=Canadian families: Diversity, conflict and change| isbn=978-0-7747-3629-9| last1=Duffy| first1=Ann| last2=Mandell| first2=Nancy| year=2000| publisher=Harcourt Brace Canada}} By 1833, Morris began to produce watercolour drawings of local flora with her own descriptions. The North British Society of Halifax honoured her with the title of "Painter of the Year" in 1836.{{Cite web|url=https://artgalleryofnovascotia.ca/maria-morris-miller/|title=Maria Morris Miller | Art Gallery of Nova Scotia|website=artgalleryofnovascotia.ca|date=28 June 2023 }}

Soon after, Nova Scotia's Secretary of Agriculture and botanist, Titus Smith Jr., asked Miller to paint a series of canvases depicting local wildflowers. He brought her specimens, which she quickly had to immortalize, before the plants deteriorated. During the mid-1830s, aided by Smith's scientific input, Miller produced a large number of watercolour drawings, which later ended up in an important Halifax art exhibition in 1848.

Smith provided botanical descriptions for Miller's first catalog of coloured lithographs entitled Wild Flowers of Nova Scotia.{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/wildflowersofnov00mill | quote=Maria Morris Miller. |title = Wild Flowers of Nova Scotia| publisher=C.H. Belcher |last1 = Miller|first1 = Maria E.|year = 1840}}{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028900468 | quote=Maria Morris Miller. | title=The Camden Colony; Or, the Seed of the Righteous: A Story of the United Empire Loyalists : With Genealogical Tables| publisher=J. Lovell & Son | last1=Bowman Tucker| first1=W.| year=1908}}{{Cite DCB |first=Charles Bruce |last=Fergusson |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/morris_maria_frances_ann_10E.html |title=Morris, Maria Frances Ann (Miller) |volume=X}} It was issued in 1840 by a London bookseller and local publisher, with the financial support of the province's lieutenant-governor Sir Colin Campbell. A set of these prints was given to Queen Victoria, which bolstered Miller's reputation significantly.

Two other sets of lithographs followed in 1853 and 1866. The second publication was also issued as Wild Flowers of Nova Scotia. The third catalog was entitled Wild Flowers of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and was annotated by George Lawson, a botanist who founded the Botanical Society of Canada.{{Cite web|url=https://www.google.ca/search?q=Maria+Morris+Miller&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA703CA703&tbm=bks&ei=YgrAWuLnGoS9jwTYqKuYDw&start=10&sa=N&biw=907&bih=425&dpr=1.5|title=Maria Morris Miller – Google Search|website=www.google.ca}} In 1867, the first series was reissued with a new title, Wild Flowers of British North America. With her four catalogs, Miller was able to document 22 native plants, at a time when there was an increasing interest in natural history.{{Cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/atlanticcanadare0000conr | url-access=registration | quote=Maria Morris Miller. | title=Atlantic Canada: A Region in the Making| publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19-541044-0| last1=Conrad| first1=Margaret| last2=Hiller| first2=James| year=2001}}

In 1862, Miller participated in an International Exhibition in London, England. Although her drawings arrived too late to be part of the competition, she received positive reviews in the English press.{{Cite web|url=https://cwahi.concordia.ca/sources/artists/displayArtist.php?ID_artist=70|title=Canadian Women Artists History Initiative : Artist Database : Artists : MILLER, Maria Frances Ann (Morris)|website=cwahi.concordia.ca}} In 1867, a copy of her botanical paintings were exhibited at the Paris Exposition.

Miller's works are part of the permanent collection at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Atlantic Canada's largest art museum.{{Cite web|url=https://artgalleryofnovascotia.ca/collection/permanent|title=Permanent Collection | Art Gallery of Nova Scotia|website=artgalleryofnovascotia.ca|date=28 June 2023 }} Other paintings and lithographs are owned by The Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, also located in Halifax. Ottawa's National Gallery of Canada has some of her lithographs as well, belonging to the 1840 and 1853 series.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/maria-morris-miller|title=Maria Morris Miller|website=www.gallery.ca}}

Also a writer, Miller published a volume of poetry, Metrical Musings, with her sister Catherine in 1856.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/metricalmusings00morrgoog|quote=Metrical musings morris.|title=Metrical Musings|first=Maria|last=Morris|date=September 12, 1856|publisher=R. Craighead, Printer|via=Internet Archive}}

Personal life

Most records indicate that Maria Morris Miller was born in 1813 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the daughter of Captain Guy Morris and Sibylla Amelia Maria Sophia Leggett. Her father, who was a descendant of Charles Morris, died when Maria was a small child. (She may have also been born in 1810 in Country Harbour, Nova Scotia with her mother moving the family to Halifax after her father's death in 1813.) In 1840, Maria Morris Miller married Garret Trafalgar Nelson Miller, the son of Garrett Miller and Catherine Pernette, who was the daughter of Joseph Pernette. Maria Morris Miller and her husband had five children. She died in Halifax in 1875.

Gallery

File:Wild Flowers of Nova Scotia Epigoea repens. May Flower (Plate I).jpg|Wild Flowers of Nova Scotia: Epigaea repens. May Flower (Plate I), 1840, National Gallery of Canada

File:Wild Flowers of Nova Scotia Sarracenia purpurea. Indian Cup (Plate IV).jpg|Wild Flowers of Nova Scotia: Sarracenia purpurea. Indian Cup (Plate IV), 1840, National Gallery of Canada

References

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