Translations

×

Expand

Elizabeth Yeend Duer, “Arbutus Menziesii Madrona,” 1941

watercolour on silk covered board (photograph by Holly Cecil)

Elizabeth Yeend Duer was born in Japan and exhibited traditional Japanese watercolour paintings in Victoria using her artist name, Gyokoshō, during the Second World War. But somehow, when Canada began rounding up people of Japanese descent in 1942 after Japan’s attack on Pearl Habour, Duer not only remained in Victoria, but also taught military officers Japanese.

Part of the reason may have been her family ties to British wealth and privilege. Born in Nagasaki in 1889 to an English father and a Japanese mother, she moved to Victoria from Japan in 1940, when war seemed imminent, joining her British cousin Katherine Maltwood, a writer and artist, and her husband, John.

Duer’s unusual and little-known story, explored in a fascinating exhibition at the University of Victoria’s Legacy Gallery until April 6, is teased out of materials that came to the university in the 1960s as part of a bequest from the Maltwoods.

Elizabeth Yeend Duer in Kimono, circa 1920s (photographer unknown)

The show does not explain how Duer escaped the fate of 22,000 Japanese Canadians from British Columbia, who were deemed threats to national security and forcibly stripped of homes and businesses and then relocated to camps in the B.C. Interior and elsewhere.

But Duer, who supported herself working as a translator and language teacher, moved easily between two identities – an Englishwoman and a Japanese painter. A photograph shows her wearing a kimono, her hair arranged in Western-style pin curls. The exhibition panel notes: “Elizabeth grew up knowing much about both English and Japanese culture and language and learned to selectively deploy this knowledge, depending on context and the message she wished to convey.” 

University of Victoria art historian Carolyn Butler-Palmer, one of the show’s curators, says it was rare for someone of Japanese heritage to avoid internment and Duer almost certainly would have needed an exemption certificate, even though she was a British citizen. “I think the reason she wasn’t interned is that she had a skill the military needed because she was perfectly bilingual," she says. "And they capitalized on it and it benefited her in that way.” 

Although scholars were aware of Duer, it’s the first significant research on her life, as well as the first major exhibition of her work.

×

Expand

Elizabeth Yeend Duer (Gyokoshō), “Common Thistle, Carum,” 1941

watercolour on shikishi board, 11" x 9"

Duer painted on laminated paperboard known as shikishi. Her small-scale images were mounted on vertical silk scrolls for the exhibition, giving them greater visual impact. Her work is identified as Nihonga – a term that simply means Japanese painting. It came into use in the 1900s to distinguish between traditional art and Western-style painting.

Instead of painting cherry blossoms and other typical subjects, she focused on native plants of the West Coast, things like lady slipper, skunk cabbage, snowberry and camas, the latter a food staple for the region’s Indigenous people. Her paintings have delicate and nuanced tonalities, but she identified each plant rigorously using both its common and scientific name.

Duer, who studied painting in Japan with Gyokushi Atomi, began the project a month after her arrival and displayed work from the series in a 1941 exhibition organized by the Island Arts and Crafts Society, presenting herself as a Japanese artist.

×

Expand

Elizabeth Yeend Duer, “Kamass Camassia quamash; Camas,” 1941

watercolour on silk covered board (photograph by Holly Cecil)

Duer never returned to Japan and lived in Victoria until her death in 1951.

The show, like its subject, assumes several roles simultaneously. It is at once a natural history lesson, a window into Japanese culture of the period, and an exploration of intercultural identity. It also offers insight into Victoria’s settler society and the processes of archival research. Housed comfortably in the university’s small downtown gallery, the exquisite work and unusual story are ideal for thoughtful perusal. ■

Translations: The Art and Life of Elizabeth Yeend Duer – Gyokoshō, 1889–1951 is on view at the Legacy Gallery in Victoria from Jan. 12 to April 6, 2019. A research symposium will be held Jan. 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and a curatorial talk will follow at 2 p.m. on Feb. 2.