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Earl Bailly

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Evern "Earl" Bailly (8 July 1903 – 1 July 1977) was a Canadian mouth-painter and print-maker.[1]

Portrait of mouth-painter Earl Bailly, Lunenburg, NS
Earl Bailly in 1957

Early life

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Bailly was born in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in 1903. His father, John, was a blacksmith and his mother, Willietta, a schoolteacher.[2][3] He had four siblings, George, Rayburn, Margaret and Donald.[4] When he was three years old he contracted polio, and this made him a quadriplegic for the rest of his life.[5] George and an uncle, Bert, also caught the disease, but not as bad.[6][4] Earl was educated by his mother. He learned to write, then draw, by holding a pen in his mouth, and won a drawing contest in a newspaper.[3] His mother said "His father and I tried to interest Earl in other things. We felt that he was headed for disappointment. But the other children knew better. They set up drawing boards for him — until I gave in."[7]

Later life and art

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By the time Bailly was ten, he was painting with watercolours. His family adapted his wheelchair so he could do oil-paintings. He studied with artist George Pearse Ennis in Maine, and took further art-studies in New York, gaining recognition. He traveled widely with his brother Donald, exibiting his art in Canada, the US and Bermuda.[3][8] He also learned how to linocut, though he found this too strenous.[9][7] People who acquired his paintings included Canadian prime ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and John Diefenbaker, Elizabeth II, whom Bailly met twice, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.[8][9]

 
Oil painting of Lunenburg wharf by Earl Bailly, 1950

In 1933, Earl and Donald traveled to the Chicago World's Fair on the schooner Bluenose.[9] According to Donald's daughter, "My dad made sure Earl had all of the adventures he wanted to have. Everyone - his brothers, my grandparents - made sure he had a real life."[6] Earl said "Don has given me everything."[7]

Bailly had visited Bermuda three times by 1967. In 1963 he attended the opening of a Bailly gallery at Shelly Bay. Apart from paintings, the gallery also displayed a few of his linocuts.[10]

Canadian writer Will R. Bird said of Bailly "... one of Canada's better artists ... an inspiration to any person, how gifted he may be."[3] According to The Saturday Evening Post in 1949, "Physicians prize his work the most. They find more curative power for crippled, handicapped patients in one Bailly canvas than in a whole chestful of medicines."[7] ARTnews said of a New York exhibition in 1949 that "His brightly colored land scapes and seascapes, painted around Nova Scotia, exuded cheer and strength and — incredibly enough — The Cut and Blue and Gold, whose choppy, impasto strokes are bound into solid compositions, well-deserved reactions of delight."[11] In 1954, foot-and-mouth painter Peter Spencer saw an example of Bailly's art, and this inspired him to display his own work. Spencer was a former WWII-pilot who had lost the use of his arms in a crash.[12][13] The town of Lunenburg says "An inspiration to others in overcoming physical challenges to lead a full, productive life."[1]

The Bailly House, where he lived and had his studio until his death in 1977, is recognized as a historic place by the Canadian Register of Historic Places.[14][15] The Pelham Street house is the oldest building in Lunenburg,[16] and his brother Donald continued living there after Earl died.[17]

Books

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  • Bailly, Earl (1957). Earl Bailly - His Trials and Triumphs (PDF).

References

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  1. ^ a b "Prominent Lunenburgers - Earl Bailly". Town of Lunenburg. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  2. ^ Marble, Allan Everett (1977). Nova Scotians at Home and Abroad: Including Biographical Sketches of Over Six Hundred Native Born Nova Scotians. Lancelot Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-88999-074-6.
  3. ^ a b c d Bird, Will R. (1950). This is Nova Scotia. Ryerson Press. pp. 176–177. ISBN 978-1-01-389438-1.
  4. ^ a b Baily, Suzanne; Stonely, Penny (1967). "SOME NOTES ON THE BAILLY FAMILY IN LUNENBURG". Lunenburg Academy Yearbook 1967 (PDF). Lunenburg Academy. p. 61.
  5. ^ Deveau, Leo J. (2017). 400 Years in 365 Days: A Day by Day Calendar of Nova Scotia History. Formac Publishing Company. p. 117. ISBN 978-1-4595-0480-6.
  6. ^ a b Clarke, Heather Laura (29 August 2016). "Bailly's art up for grabs". The Chronicle Herald. Retrieved 2 July 2024 – via ProQuest.
  7. ^ a b c d Nicholson, Arnold (3 May 1949). "Courage on canvas". The Saturday Evening Post. p. 17. ISSN 0048-9239.
  8. ^ a b "Mouth and Foot Painted Cards Popular in Canada". The Coleman journal. H.F. Legg. 4 November 1964.
  9. ^ a b c O'Connell, Ann (7 October 2015). "Remembering Earl Bailly; Lunenburg artist famous for oil paintings". The Chronicle Herald. Retrieved 2 July 2024 – via ProQuest.
  10. ^ "Cripple Artist Has Many Fans". Calgary Herald. 9 June 1967.
  11. ^ "Art News 1949-05: Vol 48 Iss 3". ARTnews. 1949.
  12. ^ Waugh, Eileen (1 October 1970). "The courage of Peter Spencer: Day 4". Liverpool Daily Post. Retrieved 2 July 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. ^ "Painting of Starways Aircraft G-APZB". National Museums Liverpool. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  14. ^ "Bailly House". Canadian Register of Historic Places. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  15. ^ Brian, Cuthbertson (1 January 1996). Lunenburg: An Illustrated History. Formac Publishing Company Limited. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-88780-358-1.
  16. ^ Hempstead, Andrew (3 July 2012). Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-470-68079-7.
  17. ^ Lightbody, Mark; Berkmoes, Ryan Ver; Huhti, Thomas (1999). Canada. Lonely Planet. p. 496. ISBN 978-0-86442-752-6.
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