At a time of disdain for modern art and widespread discrimination against women artists, Prudence Heward challenged the conventional in portraits that capture subtleties of emotion and often reflect her own struggles against illness and family tragedy. As A.Y. Jackson, founding member of the Group of Seven and the Beaver Hall Group, claimed, "[Heward] was the very best painter we ever had in Canada and she never got the recognition she richly deserved in her lifetime."