Don’t Be Afraid

Don’t Be Afraid
Charlotte Schreiber
c. 1878
oil on canvas
32.25 × 43 in (81.9 × 109.2 cm)
Winter Count, National Gallery of Canada
Private Collection, Montreal

Born in Essex in 1834, Charlotte Schreiber was encouraged by her father to pursue her passion for the arts. She trained at the Mr. Carey's School of Art in London, where she developed the anatomical skill and attention to detail that would soon characterize her works. A realism painter through and through, she believed that art was meant to be a representation of nature and disliked the impressionist movement that was peaking in her time.

In 1875, at the age of 41, she married her husband and made the move from England to Canada, bringing her distinctive high realism style with her. She settled down in Toronto with her three step-children and begun a distinguished career in art education, becoming one of the founding members of the Royal Canadian Academy and the first woman to be elected as a full academician. Furthermore, she became the only woman to sit on the council of the Ontario School of Art, shaping the minds of young artists.

After moving to Canada, her compositions began to trace themes of familial life. The faces of her step-children became recurring motifs and returning subjects of her work.

Don't Be Afraid is an example of such works. The scene depicts time spent outside with family during a snow-ladened afternoon, the smell of the ozone almost palpable, and is a scene that would look familiar to any Canadian viewer gazing in. In it, two brothers encourage their younger sister to take a turn on their sleigh, the name of the work acting as a subtitle for their words of motivation. The slight smile on their faces and attention to detail emphasizes the familial love between the siblings, as well as the adopted adoration shared by their step-mother.