Laura Adeline Muntz Lyall was born at Radford, England, in 1860, and came to Canada as a small child. After teachers' training, she moved to Hamilton, Ontario, where she taught school and studied art in her spare time. Later, she studied at the South Kensington School of Art in London, England. Around 1894, she went on an extended trip to Europe to travel and to study at the Academie Colorossi in Paris. Returning to Toronto for a short time, she then moved to Montreal until her marriage, in 1915, after which she again returned to Toronto. She was an associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy. Among her honours was an honorable mention at the Paris Salon in 1895, a bronze medal from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1901 and in 1904, a silver medal at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo. She died in Toronto in 1930.
