The Maltwoods’ legacy lives on in Katharine’s enduring artistic vision, her writing and their collection. Though her interests owed a great debt to the Arts and Crafts Movement, her curiosity went far beyond the ideals of William Morris and his circle. Against the particularly staid and conservative backdrop of Victoria, British Columbia, Katharine Maltwood stands out as a remarkable and unconventional individual with her broad interests spanning religion and myth. So much so that her life’s story inspired more than one fictionalization including: a novel, House of Fulfillment (1927) by Lily Adams Beck[ref] The friendship with Lillian Adams Beck was formed in the days of Maltwood’s Castlewood Studio in London. After World War I Beck settled in Victoria and continued to write, lecture and travel as well as holding fortnightly soirees. Beck’s Victoria home sounds much like Maltwood’s future residence, the Thatch, with a collection of Middle Eastern and Asian “treasures”, “a museum of Orientalia set in a secluded and lovely English garden” and featuring gold coloured rooms, Japanese paintings and textiles. The Maltwoods visited Beck in Victoria in 1921 and later emigrated in 1938. (Rosemary Brown, 37).[/ref] and a play, Temple of the Stars (1996) by former UVic professor Marilyn Bowering.[ref]Beck’s novel casts Maltwood as heroine Brynhilde Ingmar, a Canadian sculptor, who exists in an advanced stage of Buddhist perfection. Brynhild accompanies a British couple, the Dunbars, to the mountains of Kashmir where they meet a man named Cardonald. He falls in love with Brynhild and the story has the characters searching for ancient manuscripts of Ultimate Wisdom with adventures through mountains and raging rivers in Tibet, encounters with bandits and a host of exotic characters. Maltwood evidently approved of Beck’s direct incorporation and interpretation of several of her sculptures in the novel and even wrote in her will that Beck’s novel should be used as a more complete description of those works. In Bowering’s version, Katharine Maltwood’s character focuses on her discovery of the Glastonbury “Temple of the Stars.” The play features the characters of Morgan le Fey, Alcon/the Lover, and husband John Maltwood who witness Katharine creating the sculpture of Primeval Canada Rising to her Destiny. Marilyn Bowering Fonds UVICSP SC161. [/ref] Most importantly, the Maltwood collection has been accessed by numerous individuals and classes at the University of Victoria and beyond, and has been included in nationally and internationally touring exhibitions, most recently one on Emily Carr in 2014-2015. Katharine’s is a story of an individual and a historical period rich in scope for further study and interpretation.

“Portrait of Katharine Maltwood” 1921, Bertram Park, 20.20 x 15.50, photograph.

“Portrait of John Maltwood” 1921, Bertram Park, 25.20 x 19.00, photograph.