Scott, Marian, 1906-1993 : Marian Scott, née Dale, was born in Montreal in 1906. Her formal artistic training began at the Art Association of Montreal, where she received a scholarship. She continued further studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Montreal under the occasional tutelage of William Brymner and with encouragement from Anne Savage. In 1926, Scott studied abroad at the Slade School of Art in London with Henry Tonks. In 1928, she married poet and constitutional lawyer Francis Reginald Scott. Their only son, Peter Dale Scott, is a widely published poet and political commentator.
The artist began exhibiting in the late 1930s, participating in many group exhibitions, including the New York World's Fair in 1939. Her first solo exhibition was held in Boston, in 1941, where she was living with F.R. Scott during his sabbatical on a Guggenheim Fellowship. On her return, she continued her involvement in the artistic communities of the Contemporary Art Society, of which Scott and John Lyman were founding members, and the Canadian Group of Painters, for which she served as a juror. These associations led to group exhibitions with such contemporaries as Paraskeva Clark, Jori Smith, Prudence Heward, Philip Surrey, Yvonne McKague Housser and Louis Muhlstock. Scott formed a strong friendship with Pegi Nicol MacLeod with whom she corresponded after MacLeod moved to New York City. In 1941, she was approached by Hans Selye to work on a mural for McGill entitled "Endocrinology" which was completed two years later.
Marian Scott's life was marked by a strong interest in political issues. A friendship with Norman Bethune led to her instruction, in 1934-1935, with him and Fritz Brandtner, at the Children's Art Centre of Montreal. Together with many other artists, Scott aided in the Spanish Relief Campaign which Bethune championed. By the early 1960s, she was deeply involved in movements active against further nuclear proliferation and testing, and American intervention in Vietnam.
Although her earlier work was of a more representational nature, by the 1950s, Scott was increasingly drawn to abstraction. She continued to exhibit for the next several decades at such venues as the Roberts Gallery in Montreal and with various artists' associations. In 1967, she was awarded the Baxter Prize offered by the Ontario Society of Artists. Her later paintings evoke a serene sense of pattern and an exploration of their rhythms. Scott continued working until shortly before her death in 1993. Her work is held in the permanent collections of most major art institutions in Canada
![Marian Scott [and] Young Jane MacLeod](/images/folder-80.png){kind=small}
