BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

Miss Ernva A. Willard / Ernva Code (also Erma)
(m. Code?)(Mrs. F. Leslie)
(incorrectly Ernia)

April 21 1900 - 1989

The Palette and Chisel Club
Tauber's Puppet Players
B.C. Society of Fine Arts (Member 1936-1945)
B.C. Society of Fine Arts/B.C. Society of Artists: Exhibitor's Timeline
Federation of Canadian Artists (Founding Member 1941)


Ernva A. Willard was born in Toronto in 1900. She won a scholarship for figure paintings at the Ontario College of Art. She exhibited one painting with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1923 under the name of Willard, and was living in Toronto at that time. She was a painter in oil, and a "craftsman", creating batik and puppetry.

She exhibited with the The Palette and Chisel Club at the B.C. Art Gallery in 1928 under the name Ernva Willard Code, and at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1933. In 1932 she was a member of (Harry) Tauber's Puppet Players, assisting in the production of (at least) Petrouchka at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

In 1930 she had work at the Vancouver Exhibition, as a member of the Palette and Chisel Club. She also showed work at the Canadian National Exhbition in Toronto.

She exhibited in the Seattle Art Museum's annual Northwest Artists exhibitions in 1930.

She had work in the First and Tenth Annual B.C. Artists exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Code moved to Toronto in the early 1940s. She died in 1989, per Artists in Canada online.


GROUP EXHIBITIONS
DATE EXHIBITION ARTWORK
1927 June 10 - 25 BCSFA   19th Annual Exhibition In the Woods
A Shady Corner
The Mill Pond
1928 Feb 18 - Mar 18 Palette and Chisel Club   Exhibition Sunlit Shops, Port Hope
Reflections
Burrard Inlet
Sunshine, North Arm
Study of a Girl
Still Life
1930 Aug. 6 - 16 VanExh   Oil Paintings & Water-colours Rain - Coal Harbour
The Blue Boat
Receding Tide
Tide Out
1930 Aug. 22 - Sept. 6 CNE   Fine Arts Low Tide, Vancouver Harbour
1932 May - July VAG   All Canadian Exhibition Low Tide
Approaching Storm
1932 Oct. 5 - 30 VAG   B.C. Artists 1st Annual Hillside Houses
1933 Feb. 13 - 18 Sylvia Court    West End Artists Exhibition (titles not known)
1933 May 20 - 31 VAG   Palette & Chisel Club Exhibition Fair Scene from Petrouchka
Seascape
Market Garden
The Clearing
Elevator
The Blackamoor's Boudoir
Hurdy Gurdy Man
Houses
1934 Dec. 4 - 16 VAG   B.C. Artists Christmas Exhibition Autumn Woods
Seaside
1936 June 26 - July 12 BCSFA   26th Annual Sunlit Shops
Snow Shadows
1937 April 16 - May 1 BCSFA   27th Annual Industry
Rhododendrons
Snow Shadows
Batik Panel
1938 April 29 - May 15 BCSFA   28th Annual Blossoms
Harvest
The Old Order Changeth
1941 Sept. 26 - Oct. 19 VAG   B.C. Artists 10th Annual Masque and Flowers
1950 April 25 - May 14 BCSA   40th Annual Waterfront

References

SEATTLE ART MUSEUM - NORTHWEST ARTISTS EXHIBITIONS 1914 - 1975
     Refer to NWA BC artists by exhibition
     Refer to NWAA BC artists alphabetically

WHO'S WHO IN NORTHWEST ART (refer to WWNA41)

ROYAL CANADIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS - EXHIBITIONS & MEMBERS 1880 - 1979 (refer to RCA81)
      One painting listed in 1923 by Willard: "Sunlit Shops".

ARTISTS IN CANADA 1982 - UNION LIST OF ARTISTS' FILES (refer to AIC82)

VANCOUVER: ART AND ARTISTS 1931 - 1983; various authors
      1983, ISBN 0-920095-00-3, 440 pages; Vancouver Art Gallery
      List of works; artists' biographies; credits; no index (see partial index)
      Poster of Tauber's Puppet Players illustrated including Code's name, page 57.

BRITISH COLUMBIA WOMEN ARTISTS 1885-1985 (refer to AGGV85)

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF ARTISTS IN CANADA (refer to BIAC03)
      1 reference cited for Code - WWNA above.

Clippings

" ... and Ernva Code have excellent examples of their work on view."
      From "'West End' Show Of Art Works" by D.S.M.
      Vancouver Sun, February 15 1933

"There is much work that is excellent and pleasing. Among the oils ... Ernva Code, whose color schemes are arresting, are all highly creditable."
      From "Fine Showing By B.C. Artists Follows Conventional Lines" by E.N.B.
      Vancouver Province, April 30 1938

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