Myra-Nan ROSENFELD-LITTLE

MYRA-NAN ROSENFELD-LITTLE Myra-Nan Rosenfeld-Little, beloved wife of Robert Little, passed away on February 6, 2022, after a long illness. Myra was the daughter of the late Sarah and Howard Rosenfeld. She is survived her husband of forty-three years; her niece, Teresa; nephews, Jim, Paul, David, Peter, and their families, Pauline Poupart, Maureen Quelch; and brother, Richard Rosenfeld. A private family funeral was held in Montreal on February 10th. After her early education at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, her B.A from Sarah Lawrence College, graduate degrees from the Sorbonne and Columbia University, Myra received her Ph.D. in art and architectural history from Harvard University. She then taught at the New School University, New York, the University of Washington, Seattle, and the College of Environmental Design, Berkeley. In 1974, Myra became Research Curator and Curator of European Paintings at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where she established professional photographic and conservation laboratories and procedures and inaugurated a systematic computerized cataloguing of the permanent collection. Myra assisted the National Museums of Canada in the establishment of the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN). Myra took up a position at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (C.C.A.) in 1985 where, as head of the Research Department, she supervised the work of conservators, assistant curators, project assistants and outside scholars for six exhibitions and research projects on the collections. She was Project Director of the TAU Bilingual Architectural Thesaurus pilot project for the J. P. Getty Trust and the Comité International de l'Histoire de l'Art. Myra carried out innovative research on French painter, Largillière. She was a specialist on Italian and French renaissance architecture. Her book Sebastiano Serlio: On Domestic Architecture received the 1979 Alice Davis Hitchcock Award, shared with the Architectural History Foundation. Myra also published on Italian artist Piranesi including the C.C.A. exhibition Exploring Rome: Piranesi and his Contemporaries with scholars at the Pierpont Morgan Library. Myra was an Ailsa Mellon Bruce Visiting Senior Fellow at the National Gallery, Washington, and Guest Scholar at the Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max-Planck Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome. More recently, Myra was involved with a Toronto citizen's group in having a building by architect Earnest Cormier classified as an historic monument. Myra was working on the publication of the revision of her doctoral dissertation on Hotel de Cluny when she passed away. These activities were complemented by annual summer vacations on Cape Cod with Bob and their many trips to the Loire Valley in France and to the Veneto in Italy. Myra was a very strong person, who endured many major surgical interventions. Although exacting and demanding with herself and others, Myra was kindness itself, with an incredible gift for friendship and connecting with people. She will be missed by many friends and colleagues. Her family wishes to express its thanks to oncologists Dr. Philippe Bedard, Dr. Michael Reedijk and Dr. Tatiana Conrad, along with the Palliative Care team at Mount Sinai Hospital, including Doctors Mazzotta, Banerjee and especially Dr. Ciara Whelan. Marion Harris and Rita Walusimbi provided kind and empathetic care in her final months. Should you wish, a donation can be made in her name to the Bryn Mawr School, Baltimore, or to the Breast Cancer Clinic of the Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, (416) 946-2128.