Toronto/Thornhill Graphic Designer Ruth Mary Collins (Born 1900) Charming Mixed Media Of “The Three Kings” – Watercolour & Ink Illustration on Paper 1937

Ruth Mary Collins was an early 20th-century Canadian graphic designer and illustrator. Born in London, England in 1900, she immigrated to Canada and was active in Toronto and Thornhill by the 1920s. Collins was a member or exhibitor with the Canadian Society of Graphic Art (CSGA)-one of the country’s earliest and most important associations for professional illustrators, printmakers, and designers. The CSGA counted among its members artists such as Charles Comfort, B. Millar, and Carl Schaefer, bridging fine art and commercial design.

Her inclusion in three consecutive Art Gallery of Toronto (now AGO) Annuals (1924, 1925, 1926) suggests she showed her work there and had professional recognition within Canada’s early modernist design movement. Like many graphic artists of that era, she likely worked across illustration, advertising, and book design, with stylistic roots in the Arts and Crafts and Art Deco traditions.

This charming mixed media watercolour and ink illustration on paper -dated 1937-reflects Collins’ background in graphic design and narrative composition. The subject appears to depict the Three Kings, rendered with stylized, almost theatrical gestures. The flat colour fields, bold outlines, and decorative framing are characteristic of early 20th-century design-oriented art, bridging fine art and illustration. The scene’s gentle humour and storytelling rhythm recall children’s book art or Christmas card design of the 1930s.

By 1937, Collins was working in Canada during a period when illustration and applied design were gaining new prominence. The Canadian Society of Graphic Art actively promoted craftsmanship, design quality, and accessibility-values clearly evident in this piece.

While few of her works appear in public collections today, Collins belongs to a generation of women artists who contributed significantly to Canadian visual culture through graphic arts, book illustration, and early advertising design, yet are only recently being discovered.

Dimensions: Image: height 5″ x width 7″  Frame: height 11.5″ x width 13.75″ x depth 1.5″