Ryerson Image Centre acquires major collection of 20th century photographs
Minna Keene was the first woman admitted to England’s prestigious Royal Photographic Society, while her daughter Violet became a celebrated portraitist in her own right. Photo by Minna Keene, View of Forked River Through Forest and Mountains, 1914–1915, carbon print. The Minna Keene and Violet Keene Perinchief Collection, Ryerson Image Centre, Gift of the Sturrup Family, 2020.
The Ryerson Image Centre has acquired the Minna Keene and Violet Keene Perinchief Collection, an exceptional archive of more than 5,500 photographs and ephemera created by the two Canadian women from the 1900s through the 1970s. While both photographers operated commercial studios and achieved international acclaim, they have been largely overlooked in the history of Canadian photography.
“Minna and Violet were trailblazing female photographers and made significant cultural contributions to this country,” says RIC Director Paul Roth. “We are very pleased to be able to further their legacy by making this research collection available for students, scholars, and curators.”
Minna Keene, Petitioning Suffragette Knitting on the Street, 1907–1908, gelatin silver print. The Minna Keene and Violet Keene Perinchief Collection, Ryerson Image Centre, Gift of the Sturrup Family, 2020.
Lives and influence
Before settling in Canada in 1913, the German-born Minna Keene (1861–1943) worked in South Africa and England where she gained international acclaim producing portraits, still lifes, landscape and nature studies, and scenes of everyday life. Keene was heavily influenced by pictorialism — the leading artistic movement in photography beginning in the 1890s — and her lighting style and compositions deliberately echoed those of 19th-century British and French painting. In 1908, Keene became the first woman admitted to England’s prestigious Royal Photographic Society. Her work was regularly included in the society’s annual exhibitions, and shown in numerous Canadian and international publications.
Violet Keene Perinchief (1893–1987) learned photography alongside her mother, apprenticing in Minna’s studio and accompanying her on a 1914 trip to document the landscapes of Western Canada for the Canadian Pacific Railway. As the manager of Eaton’s Portrait Studio in Toronto between 1933 and 1948, and at the family’s long-running studio in Oakville, Ont., Violet specialized in portraits of local clients and notable personalities, such as Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, and former Prime Minister of Canada, R.B. Bennet. Like her mother, Keene Perinchief was influenced by the pictorialist sensibility, seen in her compositions drawn from European paintings and use of chiaroscuro and haloing lighting effects.
Violet Keene Perinchief, Bust of Stefanson Sculpted by Emmanuel Hahn, ca. 1938, gelatin silver print. The Minna Keene and Violet Keene Perinchief Collection, Ryerson Image Centre, Gift of the Sturrup Family, 2020.
“Exceptional in many ways”
“This archive, which significantly expands the RIC’s holdings of Canadian photography, is exceptional in many ways, but particularly because it illustrates the unique phenomenon of a professional mother-daughter photography practice, in operation for many decades,” says Denise Birkhofer, RIC collections curator and research centre manager.
Donated to the RIC by the artists’ descendants, the collection includes photographs, negatives, publications and ephemera produced by the two women, making it the most comprehensive overview of the life and work of these photographers anywhere in the world. Many images in the collection showcase the artists’ innovative experimentation with printing techniques and materials. Highlights include hand-retouched negatives, photographic paper toned in a variety of colours and duplicate prints of the same image created using diverse processes.
Minna Keene, Bishop of London, 1907–1908, albumen print. The Minna Keene and Violet Keene Perinchief Collection, Ryerson Image Centre, Gift of the Sturrup Family, 2020.
The Minna Keene and Violet Keene Perinchief Collection joins three other definitive collections of female photographers held at the RIC: the Berenice Abbott Archive (external link) , the Jo Spence Memorial Archive and the Wendy Snyder MacNeil Archive.
The Minna Keene and Violet Keene Perinchief Collection will be available for scholars, students and the public to view by appointment at the RIC’s Peter Higdon Research Centre (currently closed until further notice due to COVID-19).