Rhodes, Lily Bell

Lily Bell Rhodes 1889-1975

“Quick! Get a jar. Let’s take it to Lily Bell!”
With those words, an oddly attractive, but rare insect would (to its astonishment) find itself trapped behind glass and on its way to being sketched by Lily Bell, an avid artist and lover of all things natural. And whatever that bug looked like she would gently turn it loose in a safe corner of the yard when she was done.
The daughter of Francis Rhodes (fourth son of Col. Rhodes and Anne Dunn) and Totie LeMoine, she would likely have been brought up in the LeMoine family home, known as Spencer Grange, in Quebec City, which became the Lieutenant-Governor’s residence, and then a Canadian Heritage property and museum.
Lily Bell had a sister Frances and two other sisters who died in infancy. One of those, Anne, died before Lily Bell was born but the other, Gertrude, was born when she was seven years old. She was distraught when that child died, and whether that contributed to her nervousness as a young girl can only be speculated upon. Neither Frances nor Lily Bell ever married.
Lily Bell was always very good at sketching and devoted a great deal of her time to developing her artistic skills. Her maternal grandfather was the Canadian author, historian, and past President of The Royal Society of Canada, Sir James McPherson Le Moine (1825-1912).
Lily Bell studied art at Les Ecoles des Beaux-Arts in Quebec City under Henry Ivan Neilson (Professor of Painting, Drawing, and Anatomy), as well as with instructor and noted Canadian artist Jean-Paul Lemieux. It was said:

“Although Miss Rhodes painted for her own enjoyment and is not a listed artist, her competency of composition, perspective, and palette … underscores an undeniable and elevated degree of ability.”

But in Tadoussac, she was remembered for being very soft-spoken and sweet. She adored children and would take her young nieces on walks in the woods, telling them the names of all the flowers and mushrooms they could find, and firing their imaginations by insisting there were fairies dancing under each of them. Not surprisingly she was a great gardener along with her sister, Frances, and loved animals, particularly dogs which she used to sketch often. She even had a favourite white sweater made from the fur of a long-haired dachshund she used to own. She would frequently be seen sitting very still on a log or rock under a shapeless sunhat quietly sketching some composition that had caught her eye. Many of these sketches became very small paintings that were given to her many cousins in Tadoussac.
In the summers she usually stayed with her cousin, Lennox Williams, for a week or so, and then after he died, she was made welcome in the home of her friend, Grace Scott.
Looking back now, one can only imagine there was a depth to her that few of us knew. What we remember is her loving kindness and her reverence for nature. And some of us are still trying to collect her delightful paintings when they come available. 14