Elizabeth Styring Nutt

Artist Bio: Elizabeth Styring Nutt (1870-1946)

Elizabeth Styring Nutt was a well-known Canadian artist and educator and was primarily known for being the Principal of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

She was born in the Isle of Man, and following the death of her father, her family moved to Sheffield, UK. Nutt attended the Sheffield School of Art, the Newlyn School of Art, and also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Nutt began her teaching career in Sheffield at the First Hill Branch Art School, then the Sheffield School of Art and the Sheffield Training College for Teachers. In 1919, Arthur Lismer of the Group of Seven offered Nutt to succeed him as the Principal of the Victoria School of Art and Design, which in 1925, became known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, who Nutt herself was influential in changing the name of the well-known Canadian institution. Nutt remained at the College until 1943.

Nutt was very active in both the local and national art community, as she was a founding member of the Maritime Art Association, was a member of the Nova Scotia Society of Artists, the Nova Scotia Society of Watercolour Painters, and an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Her work was exhibited at the Nova Scotia Society of Artists, the Royal Canadian Academy, the Ontario Society of Artists, the Art Association of Montreal, the Sheffield Society of Artists, the Royal Academy of Arts (London), and the Paris Salon. Apart from her artistic and educational career, she authored several books; Flower Drawing with the Children (1916), Significance (1921), The Why in the Drawing Lesson (1929), and The World of Appearance (1935).

In 1945, Nutt returned to the United Kingdom and Sheffield became her resting place in 1946.