Musée d’art de Joliette

Few Québec artists have enjoyed such wide recognition as Jean Paul Lemieux, whose works are included in numerous public collections in Québec and Canada, and many private ones. But the relatively late emergence of his characteristic style, for which he became well known, overshadowed entire facets of his practice that remain unfamiliar to most. The watercolours he produced in Brittany in 1955 offer an eloquent example of this.

Lemieux concluded his year of study in France with a sojourn in Brittany. But it was precisely his return to Québec that marked the beginning of his so-called “classic” period. Lemieux claimed to have freed himself from his “sacrosanct” ties to France, which he considered alienating, and to have finally found his place in Québec painting—what Gabrielle Roy described as Jean Paul Lemieux’s terres nouvelles, in an article she wrote for Vie des Arts in 1963. In sum, Lemieux “became Lemieux” in 1956, just after his return from Brittany.

Two authors who were set to play a major role in Francophone literature—Gabrielle Roy, who had won the Prix Femina in 1947, and Anne Hébert, who would receive it in 1983—were also present in Saint-Gildas during this period. Yet another interesting aspect that highlights how women played an important role in Lemieux’s cultural sphere. He and his family were renting a house in Saint-Gildas when, in June, they met Gabrielle Roy, who lived in the nearby town of Port-Navalo until her departure the following month. Anne Hébert later joined her friends in Saint-Gildas, where she briefly stayed before exploring the rest of France. A third high-profile author and fellow laureate of the Prix Femina (1926) who also spent time in Saint-Gildas then was Marie Le Franc, who was originally from Sarzeau. Her circle of friends included Roy, who introduced her to Lemieux.

This unique context transformed Lemieux’s brief passage in the Rhuys Peninsula into an extraordinary experience that offered a veritable “open field” of creative possibility. This exhibition invites the public to discover, through this rarely exhibited body of work, a unique facet of Lemieux’s life and the full richness and diversity of his career.

Curator: Michel Paradis, Curator, Musée d’art de Joliette (1989-1990)

Artists

Jean Paul Lemieux, Suzanne Bergeron, Sylvia Daoust, Simone Hudon, Marcella Maltais and Jori Smith