A Victoria art collector and philanthropist has made the largest bequest in the history of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
Rosita LeSueur Tovell, who died in Victoria in 2014, bequeathed $1.1 million to the gallery, it was announced Wednesday. The money will support gallery exhibitions and programming.
Tovell was married to the late Freeman Massey Tovell, who served as Canada’s ambassador to Peru and Bolivia in the early 1960s. In 1963, the diplomat mediated the peaceful release of hostages — including four Canadians — held by striking miners in Bolivia.
In the mid-1960s, the Tovells returned to Canada, where Freeman Tovell served as cultural affairs director for the Department of External Affairs.
Rosita Tovell and her husband were passionate, knowledgeable art collectors. In South America, she collected pre-Columbian art, which she later donated to the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology. After returning to Ottawa, she acquired major works by such Canadian artists as Yves Gaucher, Claude Breeze, Jean McEwen and Jack Bush.
The Tovells moved to Victoria in 1978, where Freeman taught Canadian diplomatic history at the University of Victoria. Rosita joined the board of the art gallery, which became her main interest. She was a longtime member of the gallery’s art acquisition committee, and donated more than 100 works from her own collection as well.
Rosita Tovell’s parents were also art collectors. Her Peruvian-born mother, Rosa, was an early collector of the Group of Seven, purchasing works by Lawren Harris and Tom Thomson.
Rosita’s daughter, Rosemarie Tovell, announced her mother’s bequest Wednesday.
In an interview, she recalled that her mother was particularly interested in B.C. First Nations art. She collected artworks by such indigenous artists as Robert Davidson, Tim Paul and Susan Point, donating some to the Victoria gallery, the Penticton Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada.
“[In Victoria], she just found such a rich, rich culture with the First Nations,” said Rosemarie Tovell, a retired curator at the National Gallery of Canada who lives in Ottawa.
She said one of her mother’s enduring legacies was establishing a pioneering fund at the National Gallery for acquiring First Nations art.
“It was the first time this was done,” Tovell said. The National Gallery “had acquired Inuit art, but not First Nations art. She thought: ‘It’s time for them to get going on this, too.’ ”
In Ottawa, Rosita Tovell was a founder of the National Gallery Association (now Friends of the National Gallery) and a board member of the National Museums of Canada.
AGGV board chairwoman Ruth Wittenberg deemed Tovell’s bequest “extraordinary.”
Jon Tupper, the gallery’s director, said: “Rosita’s philanthropic leadership will allow us to develop incredible new exhibitions for the AGGV, both now and in our new building.”
He added: “We hope to reflect Rosita’s interests in South American art as well as British Columbia First Nations art as we develop the exhibitions and programming supported by her gift.”
In 2014, Anthony Thorn donated $2.5 million to the AGGV, the largest cash donation the gallery has ever received.
