Elizabeth Lovitt Cann was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia into a family of wealth and extensive connections. Cann started her studies at a private school in Montreal and later went to Philadelphia where she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts with the American landscape painter Daniel Garber. In 1921 she moved to New York where she studied for a year at the New York School of Applied Design for Women. For the next fourteen years Elizabeth Cann, accompanied by her mother, traveled and lived abroad, returning periodically to Yarmouth. During those years Cann studied at the Academie Julien, the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and the Atelier chez Bileul in Paris. She also studied under Harold Harvey and Ernest Procter at the Harvey-Procter Academy in Cornwall. In these years Cann also visited and painted in Belgium, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Algiers. In 1936 Elizabeth Cann and her mother returned to Yarmouth where she was to remain until her death in 1977. These years of study and travel abroad gave Cann a sound academic education in art, and exposure to the avant garde art of her time. While Cann was undoubtedly familiar with the work of the Impressionists, as well as Matisse and Picasso, she did not incorporate modernist ideas into her own work. Throughout her career Cann pursued academic ideals in her approach to portraits, landscape and still life painting and was able to develop her own distinctive style and approach to the subject-matter.

Cann started to exhibit her work in 1923 at the Salon d’Automne in Paris. In 1927 a one-person exhibition of her work was shown at the Johnson Art Galleries in Montreal. In 1929 her work was accepted at the Spring Salon in Paris and in 1930 a painting was accepted at the Royal Canadian Academy exhibition in Toronto. Following her return to Canada Cann continued to submit to the annual Royal Canadian Academy and Art Association of Montreal exhibitions. Despite her success in exhibiting her work, Cann was a private person and stayed in Yarmouth both painting and teaching. Her contributions to art in Canada have remained largely unnoticed despite her impressive exhibition history. It is hoped that this exhibition will help to establish her position as a talented and serious artist who made a significant contribution to the development of Canadian art both in her native province and nationally.