Academic Male Nude

In 1910, Lilias Torrance won an Art Association of Montreal (AAM) scholarship awarded to pupils in its junior elementary class. As a boarder at Miss Edgar’s and Miss Cramp’s school for girls in Montreal, she took art classes given by Laura Muntz. The recipient of a second AAM scholarship in 1914 for this academic nude, she continued her training under William Brymner until 1915. During World War I she spent time in London, where she took classes from the painter Alfred Wolmark for about six months. She continued her training in Paris, after 1923, at the Académie Colarossi and in the studio of Alexander Yacovlev. She gave classes in art in her studio and, along with Edwin Holgate, oversaw the courses in painting, portraiture and still life at the AAM’s school in the years 1934-1936 and 1938-1940.