Isabel McLaughlin was a pivotal figure in Canadian modernist painting. Born in Oshawa, Ontario, to Adelaide Mowbray and Robert Samuel McLaughlin, founder of the McLaughlin Motor Car Company and first president of General Motors Canada, she grew up at her family’s estate, Parkwood. Isabel studied at the Sorbonne in Paris (1920-1924), earning a Diplôme de Civilisation Français, before returning to Toronto to attend the Ontario College of Art, studying under Arthur Lismer. She later continued her artistic education at the Scandinavian Academy in Paris (1929-1930). 

As a key founder of the Canadian Group of Painters in 1933, Isabel became the group’s first woman president in 1939. Her artistic circles included luminaries such as A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris, and Prudence Heward.  Isabel’s landscape work was influenced by her travels across the American Southwest, the Caribbean, and Canada.

McLaughlin was also a generous patron of the arts, supporting her peers and contributing significantly to the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, named after her grandfather. The gallery’s Isabel McLaughlin collection now includes over 3,600 works.  Despite ceasing to paint in the 1960s, Isabel’s legacy endured through her awards, including the Order of Ontario (1993) and the Order of Canada (1998). She passed away in 2002, leaving a lasting imprint on Canadian art.