Bobs Cogill Haworth

Barbara "Bobs" Cogill Haworth RCA^[1][2] (1900 – 1988) was a South African–born Canadian painter and potter. She practiced mainly in Toronto, living and working with her husband, painter and teacher Peter Haworth. She was a member of the Canadian Group of Painters with Yvonne McKague Housser, Isabel McLaughlin and members of the Group of Seven.

Bobs Cogill Haworth
Self portrait
Born	Barbara Zema Warbairn Cohill (1900-01-20)January 20, 1900 Queenstown, Cape Colony
Died	March 30, 1988(1988-03-30) (aged 88) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	South African, Canadian
Other names	Zema Barbara Cogill Haworth, Barbara Zema Warbairn Vera Cohill
Education	Royal College of Art, University of London
Known for	Painting, Ceramics
Movement	Abstract art
Spouse	Peter Haworth

Early life and education

Barbara Zema Vera Cogill was born on January 20, 1900, in Queenston, South Africa.

She studied at the School of Design of the Royal College of Art in London, England with Professor William Rothenstein, Dora Billington, and Eric Gill, specializing in ceramics (1919–1923).^[3] She immigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1923.

She married to Peter Haworth. The Haworths lived in the fashionable upscale district of Rosedale in Toronto. Their residence was a mecca for artists holding formal meetings and small exhibitions.

Career and official commissions

From 1913 to 1968 she worked as a painter in watercolour, oils, and later in acrylic. She also used standard clay for her pottery works. The majority of her works are signed "B. Cogill Haworth" or "Bobs Cogill Haworth". Haworth preferred landscape themes and waterscape themes but also ventured practice in non-objective paintings, some on a very large scale. Most of her paintings post-1950 were created on masonite and often signed on the front and verso; often with an artist's paper label.

In 1936, Bobs Haworth was one of the founding members of the Canadian Guild of Potters along with Nunzia D'Angel and Robert Montgomery. Haworth was the first honorary president.^[4]

Both Peter and Bobs Haworth made illustrations for Kingdom of the Saguenay (1936) by Marius Barbeau.^[5][a] The Haworths also collaborated on illustrating James Edward Le Rossignol's The Habitant Merchant (1939).^[3]

She was elected a full member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1963.^[1]

Exhibitions

Haworth was a regular and prolific exhibitor with such institutions as the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA),^[6] Ontario Society of Artists (OSA), Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (CSPWC), Canadian Group of Painters (CGP) among other formal and informal art groups and organizations.

Death and legacy

Haworth died peacefully at her home in Toronto. At her bequest, she left her entire art archives and remainder of her art works to Queen's University.^[7] In 1998, she was one of the four artists in 4 Women Who Painted in the 1930s and 1940s, curated by Alicia Boutilier for the Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa.^[1] Her work was included in The Artist Herself: Self-Portraits by Canadian Historical Artists , an exhibition co-curated by Alicia Boutilier and Tobi Bruce who also co-edited the book/catalogue.^[8]

Notes

1. Other lllustrators of the Kingdom of the Saguenay were André Charles Biéler, Rody Kenny Courtice, A. Y. Jackson, George Pepper, Albert Edward Cloutier, Arthur Lismer, Gordon Edward Pfeiffer, Yvonne McKague Housser and Kathleen Daly.^[5]