Caroline Louisa Daly (1832-1893) was a 19th-century Canadian landscape painter. She had been hiding from public glare for more than 50 years and so did her artistic talent. As a result, someone else took credit for her paintings and the gallery that held the collection of her paintings wrongfully attributed them to somebody else for decades. Caroline’s great-grandson, Richard Jenkins took the initiative and visited the Confederation Center Art Gallery in Prince Edward Island, Canada. He found out that the paintings displayed in the Gallery reminded him of the canvasses of his great-grandmother.

Claim For Ownership

Richard Jenkins informed the Gallery that the paintings attributed by them to a few painters belonged to a different person. Consequently, the museum staff started delving into the historical records and launched a 2-year long investigation to get to the truth. The revelation made in the investigation surprised them completely. The investigation established that the claims of the painters to whom the paintings were attributed were insubstantial. Further, one of the two painters who claimed credit for the paintings was not even a painter. In this way, the ownership of the real painter of these artworks became clear. Caroline’s family gave some of her works to the Gallery. The investigation is also a pointer to the larger truth that there were efforts to downplay the accomplishments of women.

Museum Makes Amends

Caroline Louisa Daly learnt painting by herself and she never exhibited her paintings during her lifetime. The members of her family and her friends were aware of her keen eye for details and talent for design and painting skills. The same Museums that was responsible for the misattribution made amends thereafter. It launched a monographic exhibition dedicated to the artist titled ‘introducing Caroline Louisa Daly’. The exhibition included six of Caroline’s paintings that the Gallery already owned and another six paintings that her family donated to the Museum.

‘A Little Feminist History’

Experts believe that Caroline’s paintings and artworks act as an index of what Prince Edward Island looked like 150 years ago. The misattribution happened on account of the poor record-keeping. The discovery is not so small a thing that we can just take things for granted because this is a case of a victory of a ‘little feminist victory’. Experts also feel that women are over-represented in art schools and underrepresented in exhibition spaces. Historically, cultural institutions underrate women’s art and the number of such cases, according to them, is a cause for concern.

Her Well-known Paintings

Some of Caroline’s well-known paintings include ‘Government House in Winter With Sleigh’ (1854-59), ‘A Whale Stranded in Tracadle Harbour’ (1858),