Arquivo F2546 - Janet Braide fonds

Janet Braide nee Harbron, was born in Toronto in 1924. She attended Lawrence Park Collegiate followed by attending Trinity College, University of Toronto where she graduated with a B.A. in Geography in 1948. In 1949 she married David Braide, with whom she had three children, Robert, Martha and Mary Jane.

While living in Ontario Janet Braide developed an interest in the decorative arts, and upon her moving to Montreal in 1965, sh returned to school to study under Russell Harper in one of the first courses given in Canada on the history of Canadian Art. Braide enrolled in a number of art history courses at Concordia University and eventually received her M.F.A. in Art History from that institution.

Based on work for her thesis, which was on the artist William Brymer, Braide curated an extensive travelling exhibition as a guest curator for the Agnes Etherington Gallery at Queen's University. She also curated a number of other shows on Canadian artists such as Anne Savage and Prudence Heward. In addition to guest curating Braide wrote and lectured extensively. As a lecturer and cataloguer, Mrs. Braide was associated with the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, the Macdonald-Stewart Foundation and the Musée du Quebec in Quebec City. As an art historian, she wrote for The Canadian Collector, The Journal of Canadian Art History and was an art critic for the Montreal Star from 1967-1971.
Braide passed away February 26, 1987 of pancreatic cancer.