Abstract

This thesis is dedicated to the artistic legacy of a little-known Russian-born Canadian painter and drawer, Yulia Biriukova (1895-1972), active in Toronto primarily during the 1930s. Using her painting The Riverman, Frenchy Renaud (1935) from the Art Gallery of Hamilton, I seek to reassess the problematic of Canadian portraiture of the interwar period through such notions as national symbols and typology. Being an individual who came to Canada as an experienced artist, Biriukova reflected the Canadian world that she saw. As a descendant of a highly educated and aristocratic family, she quickly integrated into the beau-monde of the Torontonian public and delved into the details of nationalist concerns that gained momentum in Canada after World War I. The figure of the lumberjack that she chose to paint embodies a carefully orchestrated philosophy of national unity and prosperity that this thesis offers the reader to discover.