Sophie Pemberton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sophie Pemberton (1869-1959) was a Canadian painter.

Born in Victoria, British Columbia, she was the daughter of Teresa Jane Grautoff and Joseph Despard Pemberton (1821-1893). A successful executive with the Hudson's Bay Company and the first Surveyor-General of Vancouver Island, her father could afford to send her to live and study in Paris at the Académie Julian.

Pemberton painted at a time when her chosen mediums had been the exclusive domain of men and her European influences can be seen in her work. The painter of both portraits and landscapes, Pemberton was the first artist from the province of British Columbia to receive international acclaim when her work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, including her award-winning 1897 work seen here titled "Little Boy Blue."

In 1905, she married Arthur Beanlands, an Anglican priest. He died in 1917 and she eventually married Horace Deane-Drummond. Beyond her work on canvas, Sophie Pemberton taught painting to local female artists. In 1909 she did the artistic decoration for the non-denomionational Pemberton Memorial Chapel gifted by her family to Victoria's Royal Jubilee Hospital.

Sophie Pemberton died in 1959 in Victoria and was interred there in the Ross Bay Cemetery.