Mildred Valley Thornton (May 7, 1890 – July 27, 1967) was a Canadian artist most well known for her portraits of First Nations people. She also painted landscapes in oil and watercolour. Her paintings were usually done in vivid colours. Born in Ontario, she moved to Regina in 1913, and began painting Indigenous portraits fifteen years later. Her portraits were completed quickly, usually under one hour. In 1934, she relocated to British Columbia, and continued to paint individuals of that province's aboriginal population, eventually amassing nearly 300 portraits. Thornton was a tireless lecturer and advocate of Indigenous and women's rights. While lecturing, she often appeared dressed in buckskin, and played Indigenous songs that she had recorded. Besides being an author and art critic, she was involved in numerous literary and artistic associations. She hoped to sell her portrait collection to the Government of Canada, and when this wasn't forthcoming, decreed in her will that it be burned. The portraits narrowly escaped that fate due to a technicality. While popular in her lifetime, Thornton was neglected for some time afterwards. A biography of her by Sheryl Salloum was published in 2011. There has been mixed reactions to her work and persona among First Nations peoples, with some collecting portraits of their ancestors and others regarding Thornton through the lens of cultural appropriation.
Early life (1890–1913) Mildred Valley Stinson was born a few miles from Rutherford, Ontario, on May 7, 1890. She came from a large farming family. Her early interests included poetry, drawing, and painting. Stinson may have been influenced by her uncle, Edward Longman, an Oxford scholar who was also a painter. Thornton's personality has been described as "fun-loving, driven, and outgoing." In 1907, she enrolled in Olivet College, Michigan, following in the footsteps of her aunt, Evelyn Beatrice Longman, a noted sculptor. Stinson graduated in 1910. She lived in Toronto for a few years, briefly attending the Ontario School of Art. Two of her instructors were George Agnew Reid and John William Beatty. She employed Beatty's compositional style of a low horizon and muted colours in some of her early paintings. Stinson also had an admiration for the work of Tom Thomson.
Saskatchewan years (1913–1934)
In 1913, Stinson moved to Regina. While there, a First Nations man standing on a railway station platform made such an impression that she decided upon her future painting subjects. Her fascination with Indigenous peoples had begun earlier, with the Lenape of southern Ontario.
Stinson married John Henry Thornton, a businessman, on April 28, 1915. In 1918–1919, Mildred attended the Art Institute of Chicago. By 1920, Thornton had become an instructor at the Regina College of Art. Her pastoral landscapes of this period are marked by a colourful palette and aggressive brushstrokes. In 1926, along with other artists she made a pilgrimage to Canoe Lake in Ontario, site of Tom Thomson's death. Later that same year, she had twin sons, John Milton (Jack) and Walter Maitland. Over the ensuing decades, John Thornton's support of his wife's calling was an immense help to Mildred's career, with John often taking on extended caregiving duties during his wife's travels.
Thornton began painting First Nations people in 1928, and always paid them for their time. She had a genuine interest in her subjects, both as individuals and for their culture. Thornton said that her first forays into Indigenous portraiture were often met with suspicion or hostility, but over time she gained easier access. Some of the tribes she visited included the Kainai Nation, Cree, Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Piikani Nation, Tsuutʼina Nation, Sioux, Nakoda, and Saulteaux. In some cases her portraits were the only recorded likeness of a person. Her fascination with native peoples, which grew into a sort of obsession, restrained her artistic career while at the same time spread her fame as an "Indian painter." During her lifetime the Indigenous portraits were never for sale. She also attended native ceremonies, such as the Sun Dance near Gleichen, Alberta. This wider reference to native culture led Thornton to embark on a series of mythological and historical paintings.