Art Gallery of Newfoundland and
Labrador (AGNL)
Shaped by the Sea
Permanent Collections
Rae Perlin is known in the Newfoundland arts community not only as a talented artist but also as an art reviewer and writer.
Born in 1910 in St. John's, Perlin was interested in drawing and sketching as a child. Although art was her first love, as a young woman she decided to move to New York City to take a different path. In 1934, she graduated as a nurse, a profession that would sustain her financially and give her hours flexible enough for a future career as an artist as well. Since she was now in a large and cosmopolitan city, she began studying art, a vocation that was not so highly respected in Newfoundland in those days, especially for a woman.
For many years, Perlin worked evening or night shifts as a nurse and took art classes during the day. At the age of 40 she went to Paris, France, and studied at L'Académie Grande Chaumière and Académie Ranson. She went on to spend most of the 1950s travelling around Europe and England, sketching in her notebooks and experiencing the fine art and cultures of the countries she visited.
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Newfoundland Scene Unknown Date Mixed Media 21.5 x 28 cm 
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In 1959, she returned home to St. John's to work as an artist and writer. In 1960, she began her decades-long career as an art reviewer, writing regularly for The Daily News, The Evening Telegram and The Newfoundland Herald. She was also an active member of the Newfoundland Writers' Guild.
She continued her life as a visual artist and was a regular participant in the Newfoundland Arts and Letters Competition. She won the competition's highest visual arts award in 1962 and 1967.
In 1970, she received a Canada Council grant to tour various Canadian art galleries, and, in 1976, she visited Israel. In 1982, she agreed to a retrospective exhibition of her artwork at Memorial University Art Gallery in St. John's. The show displayed 78 of her sketches, drawings and paintings, out of the hundreds she did over the years, accompanied by a small catalogue. In the 1980s and 1990s, solo shows in commercial galleries and at Memorial University Art Gallery were organized.
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Portrait Sketch Unknown Date Charcoal 34.3 x 26.9 cm
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Perlin is most noted as an artist for her sketches. In Marion White's biographical book Not a Still Life, AGNL director Pat Gratton said Rae Perlin's sketches "exhibit the best qualities of such artwork—directness, economy of line, impressions conveyed through a few eloquent strokes and shapes and washes of colour, a sense of sharing the artist's first fresh vision. They suggest Rae's own lively curiosity, restlessness and selective eye."
Rae Perlin still lives in St. John's.
