Jean Paul Lemieux

Last updated

Jean Paul Lemieux
Jean Paul Lemieux - LAC PA-211607.jpg
Lemieux in 1977
Born
Marie Joseph Jean Paul Lemieux

(1904-11-18)November 18, 1904
Quebec City, Canada
DiedDecember 7, 1990(1990-12-07) (aged 86)
Quebec City, Canada
Education
SpouseMadeleine Des Rosiers

Jean Paul Lemieux, CC RCA GOQ (1904 - 1990) was one of the foremost twentieth century painters in Canada. He worked in several different styles, as represented by his five artistic periods.

Contents

Biography

He was born in Quebec City, where he also died. He was raised in Quebec City until 1916, when his family moved to Berkeley, California. In 1917, the family returned to Quebec and settled in Montreal. [1]

As a youth, Lemieux created watercolours, taking lessons in his teens from an "English lady" in Montreal. [2] From 1926 to 1934, Jean Paul Lemieux studied with Edwin Holgate and others at the Montreal School of Fine Arts. In 1929, he traveled to Europe with his mother. In Paris, he studied advertising and art and met other artists. Lemieux took teaching positions from 1934, first at his former school, then in 1935 at the École du meuble. In 1937, he moved to Quebec City and taught at the École des Beaux-Arts de Québec until his retirement in 1965. His connections at that period include other major artists associated with these schools, such as Alfred Pellan and Paul-Émile Borduas. [1]

In 1960, works by Lemieux along with Edmund Alleyn, Graham Coughtry, Frances Loring and Albert Dumouchel represented Canada at the Venice Biennale. [3]

Awards and honors

Jean Paul Lemieux received several awards for his works, including the Louis-Philippe Hébert prize in 1971 and the Molson Prize for the Canada Council for the Arts in 1974. In 1968, he became a Companion of the Order of Canada. He was also a member of the Royal Canadian Academy. In 1997, he was posthumously made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec.

Artistic career

Lemieux was a representational artist whose painting career sometimes had echoes of folk art but, in 1956, at the age of 52, he changed his subject matter and refined his technique. The paintings which followed are among his best known. They usually feature emblematic scenes of French Canada, often combined with a sense of the vast spaces of his homeland.

Works - a selection

The five periods

The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and other sources [1] divide Lemieux's career into five periods:

Legacy

Jean-Paul Lemieux monument in Quebec, Canada Monument de Jean-Paul Lemieux 01.jpg
Jean-Paul Lemieux monument in Québec, Canada

A set of postage stamps depicting three works by Lemieux, Self-portrait (1974), June Wedding (1972) and Summer (1959) were issued by Canada Post on October 22, 2004. The stamps were released on the day that a retrospective of his work organized to recognize the centenary of the artist's birth opened at the National Gallery of Canada. [4] The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (abbreviated as MNBAQ) held the exhibition Jean Paul Lemieux: Silence and Space in 2022.

The Jean Paul Lemieux and Madeleine Des Rosiers fonds, R6612, is in Library and Archives Canada.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Paul Riopelle</span> Canadian painter and sculptor (1923–2002)

Jean-Paul Riopelle, was a Canadian painter and sculptor from Quebec. He had one of the longest and most important international careers of the sixteen signatories of the Refus Global, the 1948 manifesto that announced the Quebecois artistic community's refusal of clericalism and provincialism. He is best known for his abstract painting style, in particular his "mosaic" works of the 1950s when he famously abandoned the paintbrush, using only a palette knife to apply paint to canvas, giving his works a distinctive sculptural quality. He became the first Canadian painter since James Wilson Morrice to attain widespread international recognition and high praise, both during his career and after his death. He was a leading artist of French Lyrical Abstraction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc-Aurèle Fortin</span>

Marc-Aurèle Fortin was a Québécois painter, known best for paintings that convey the charm of small-town Quebec.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Brymner</span>

William Brymner, was a Canadian figure and landscape painter and educator. In addition to playing a key role in the development of Impressionism in Canada, Brymner taught numerous artists who became leading figures in Canadian modern art.

Fernand Toupin was a Québécois abstract painter best known as a first-generation member of the avant-garde movement known as Les Plasticiens. Like other members of the group, his shaped paintings drew upon the tradition of geometric abstraction, and he cited Mondrian as a forerunner. In 1959, Toupin began working with a more lyrical, though abstract, way of painting. The last decade of his career saw his return to geometric abstraction. Like Jean-Paul Mousseau, Toupin created works which lay outside the standard boundaries of art such as his stage sets for ballets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarence Gagnon</span> Canadian painter (1881-1942)

Clarence Alphonse Gagnon, LL. D. was a French Canadian painter, draughtsman, engraver and illustrator. He is known for his landscape paintings of the Laurentians and the Charlevoix region of eastern Quebec.

Albert Dumouchel was a Canadian printmaker, painter and teacher. A multi-talented individual, Dumouchel also was a photographer and gifted musician. His work as an artist ranged from abstract to figurative.

Jacques Godefroy de Tonnancour, LL. D. was a Canadian artist and art educator from Montreal, Quebec.

Louis Jaque was a Canadian painter who belonged to the Quebec modernist movement of the post war period. He is known for pure abstract painting, printmaking, furniture design, interior decorator, and teaching.

Valentin Gallery is an art gallery in Quebec. Created in 1934, it was first called "L'Art français" and had its start on Laurier Street in Montreal. Owners Lucienne (1900-1992) and Louis (1890-1956) Lange initially showed works by French artists. By the 1940s they were offering art by Marc-Aurèle Fortin and Philip Surrey. In 1975, Jean-Pierre Valentin purchased the gallery. The gallery moved to its present Sherbrooke Street location later and changed the name to Valentin Gallery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Pilot</span> Canadian artist

Robert Wakeham Pilot DCL was a Canadian artist, who worked mainly in oil on canvas or on panel, and as an etcher and muralist. He is known for his ability to capture the tone and atmosphere, especially at twilight, of the landscape of Quebec. Pilot is the last of the Canadian painters considered "to lend authority to Canadian Impressionism". He also accepted commissions as a book illustrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Young Johnstone</span> Canadian Impressionist painter (1887-1930)

John Young Johnstone was a Canadian Impressionist painter, known for his paintings of life in city, town or countryside, as well as for scenes of Montreal's Chinatown.

Bonnie Jean Baxter is an American artist. She studied art in Illinois (1965-1967) and Michigan (1967-1969) and came to Montreal, Canada, with her artist husband, Pierre Lemieux, in 1970. She has lived in Canada since 1972. She was one of the first members of the Atelier de l’Île and created Atelier Le Scarabée. She printed for other Canadian artists such as Canadian artist Jean-Paul Riopelle and René Derouin. Baxter is known for her artworks that combine animal and human forms.

Léon Bellefleur D.F.A. was a French-Canadian abstract painter and print-maker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund Alleyn</span> Canadian artist (1931-2004)

Edmund Alleyn had an art career that underwent many stylistic changes. He explored various styles of painting including abstraction, narrative figuration, technology and pop art, as well as different media. Critics feel that his inability to be categorized marks him as contemporary. Even more important, they say that he helped remove excessive compartmentalization from art practice.

Stanley Cosgrove was a Canadian painter, draughtsperson and muralist. His landscapes are praised for their serenity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Belzile</span> Canadian artist (1929-2019)

Louis Belzile was one of the main figures of geometric abstraction in painting in Quebec and one of the members of the Plasticiens group in Montreal along with Rodolphe de Repentigny (Jauran), Jean-Paul Jérôme and Fernand Toupin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrien Hébert</span> Canadian artist (1890-1967)

Adrien Hébert was a painter who has been called the first interpreter of Quebec modernity. He was inspired by the port of Montreal and the city itself.

Richard Lacroix is a Canadian engraver, painter and sculptor who increased recognition for Canadian printmaking. He was the founder of Atelier Libre (1964), the first printshop in Canada which made printmaking facilities available to contemporary artists, as well as the Guilde Graphique (1966).

Roland Poulin is a Canadian contemporary sculptor whose work is characterized by its horizontality and weightiness. He has lived in Sainte-Angèle-de-Monnoir, Quebec, since 1986.

Jean-Paul Jérôme was a painter, designer and sculptor, who was a co-founder of Les Plasticiens in 1955. He was a key figure in Quebec's abstract art scene of the second half of the 20th century.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Grandbois, Michèle. "Jean Paul Lemieux - Biography". www.aci-iac.ca. Art Canada Institute . Retrieved May 15, 2020.
  2. Grandbois, Michèle. "Works". www.heffel.com. Heffel Auction House, Post-War & Contemporary Art November 23, 2023. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  3. "Past Canadian Exhibitions". National Gallery of Canada at the Venice Biennale. National Gallery of Canada. Archived from the original on October 13, 2013. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
  4. "Art Canada: Jean Paul Lemieux". Canada Post. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved October 13, 2013.

Further reading

Images and galleries
Information
Criticism and interpretation