Interpretive Centre: East Block, 1886

The Red Parlour, or Sisters' Parlour

he Sisters' Parlour or the Red Parlour, was the more formal of the two parlour rooms at the main entrance to the Academy. This room sat to the left, for guests entering the building at the second floor level. Although the Sisters usually met their guests in the other parlour, known as the Pupils' Parlour, this room was sometimes used on more formal occasions; if there were important figures from the Church, government or the community, they were escorted into this room.

Guest Register, 1901

A special Guest Book was kept by the Sisters, during the late 1800s and early 1900s, to record these visitors. A formal record of the arrival of anyone who was not a student or staff member at the Academy was made in the reports of the Convent administration, but this book was used as a souvenir. Sister Osithe and other teachers involved with the art department would prepare a page with paintings of a nation's flag, flowers or other appropriate designs, and the guests would sign their names, sometimes with a poem, or a drawing of their own.

The decor of the parlour was dark, with upholstered chairs, an old carpet, and heavy draperies at the windows. Wallpaper was used on the walls, and crocheted doilies were placed around the room, on the velvet furniture 'like in an old family parlour'. A chair with carved dog's heads for arms was the special favourite of the brother of one of the students, who was allowed to sit and stroke their wooden heads while his mother and sister spoke with one of the Sisters. Book shelves completed the furniture of the room. One of the Sisters who had been a student at St. Ann's, was in awe of the parlour with the hard chairs, made so "uncomfortable so you would be formal." Some of this furniture can still be found in the possession of the Sisters of St. Ann in Victoria.

Sisters', or Red Parlour

Many visitors came to view the paintings hung on the parlour walls. Several had plaques to show that they were a donation or in memory of someone. A crayon sketch of two Sisters of St. Ann, standing on the Ogden Point Breakwater in Victoria, as they watched a boat with their fellow Sisters depart for a mission in Japan in 1934, hung amongst them. This was the work of Sister Osithe, whose copy of Murillo's "The Immaculate Conception" was also placed in this room. One of the Sisters remembers, "I used to go in there as a girl and just ponder and wonder." It was something that many girls did, enchanted by the great size of the work and the subject matter of the Virgin Mary. Reverend J.H. Mac Donald wrote after Sister Osithe's death that the artist "must have meditated long and prayerfully on the Mother of God [The Virgin Mary] and of the Saints, to express them so perfectly in her paintings." (from the Necrology of the Sisters of Saint Ann, 1938-1943) The painting gave the parlour a religious feeling, which has returned with the recent addition of a full-scale photographic reproduction of the "The Immaculate Conception", as part of the restoration.

More on the Interpretive Centre

Click here to view a 360 degree panorama view of the Sisters' Parlour as it is today.