Hortense Gordon, ARCA

Journal of Canadian Studies, Fall 1994 by Inglis, D Grace

Hortense Gordon soon established a preference for teaching principles of design, and continued to teach this subject throughout her career. Her students remember that the introductory course involved finding a simple motif and developing it fully, over several months, in more than one medium. One student recalled using a "paisley" design, and another remembered a difficult exercise drawing golf balls together as a design. Hortense invoked the terms "value, measure, direction, interval and form" for different ways of using the motif, and also "harmony, balance and rhythm" as general characteristics to be developed in overall use of the motif in a design. The motif was used in millinery, china decoration, pottery, wallpaper and textiles. In advanced grades, textile design was taught from every aspect, with students visiting textile factories. Advanced design classes covered historical ornament and costume, design for posters, hooked rugs, embroidery, house interiors and plans, dress design, and handmade greeting cards and envelopes.(f.21)

Norma Overend Lyne, a student and later a teacher in the art department, recalled that Hortense Gordon did not refer to books in her teaching, but instead used a store of ideas so well - assimilatedthat they had become her own. According to Lyne, Hortense referred frequently to Japanese design principles and methods of expression while teaching.(f.22)

There is no evidence that Hortense ever attended teacher's college. However, the main concepts she expounded were included in general teacher training by 1920. With her instinct for advancement and natural curiosity, it is reasonable to suppose she would have read whatever new material was available, as indeed she continued to do throughout her life. Her choice of Japanese wood - block prints as teaching devices was aided by a collection of over 200 examples that John Gordon had assembled while in Paris in the 1890s; these were placed around classroom walls and frequently used for reference.

The first Canadian manual for art teachers, published as an approved text in 1916, included exercises in design for applied arts in several media. The design principles outlined in the manual were balance, rhythm and harmony; in any design, the position, size, shape, value and colour intensity of the motif had to achieve each of the three principles, a procedure which became quite complicated in some of the exercises. This manual resembled an American publication, Art Education for High Schools (published by Prang in 1908), a detailed textbook for teaching art and design that was used by some Canadian teachers prior to 1916 and which likely influenced the Ontario manual.(f.23) Both books used Japanese prints in discussing rhythm and balance, and both texts reflected ideas current among educators, especially those of Denman W. Ross, who published and lectured on design theory at Harvard University. In his A Theory of Pure Design (1907), he outlined the principles of repetition, sequence and balance as elements of design. His approach was a holistic one, emphasizing the value to human life of having well - designed objects in daily use.(f.24)