CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Florence Vale

Canadian artist

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ19667537
Source-derived summary

Florence Vale (April 18, 1909 - July 23, 2003) was a Canadian artist influenced by Surrealism, Cubism, Expressionism, and the works of Paul Klee. "I paint what I dream", wrote Vale.

Early life and education

Vale was born in Ilford, then part of Essex, England. She emigrated to Toronto with her family when she was two years old. A piano-maker and musician, Florence's father taught her to play piano at a young age and entertained the family with toys and puzzles he created. Florence's mother was a music-hall musician. Vale had no formal art training; her formal schooling ended at the age of eleven with grade seven, after which she held a series of jobs in Toronto's garment district. When she was eighteen she met Dutch-born artist Albert Franck, a swimming instructor at the Oakwood pool who was teaching her brothers to dive. They were married two years later and had two children, Trudy (who died as an infant) and Anneke.

Career

Vale was introduced to the world of visual art by her husband, Albert Franck, who painted views of Toronto backyards and houses.

Editorial summary

“Florence Vale” enters the record as canadian artist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Florence, Vale and Canadian can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1909, 2003—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1909-04-18. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Florence, Vale and Canadian.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Florence Vale” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Florence, Vale and Canadian provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19667537. VIAF identifies the subject as 141855514. The Library of Congress control number is n84218193. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909 and 2003.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Florence Vale”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Florence Vale primary sources, Florence Vale archive and Florence research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Florence Vale”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Florence Vale” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.