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BOUCHARD, Marie-Cécile
- Born
- Baie St. Paul, Quebec, 1920
- Died
- Chicoutimi, Quebec, 1973
- Biography synopsis
- A renowned folk painter, Marie-Cécile Bouchard was encouraged and guided in her work by her older sister, Simone-Mary, who showed her how to paint at eighteen. Like her sisters, the artist was a painter of genre scenes, traditional Québecois interiors and representations of rural life. Her work was shown in Brazil in 1945, where she was hailed as a great "primitive" artist, and her paintings were celebrated for their unsophisticated technique and poignant, touching qualities. Collectors from all over the world acquired her canvasses. However, Marie-Cécile's faith, evidenced by her frequent choice of religious subject matter, eventually overcame her desire to paint, and she entered the Sisters of Sainte-Antoniennes de Marie Convent in Chicoutimi in 1947. Her artistic activities ceased for twenty-two years until, in the last two years of her life, she made thirty copies of her own paintings. Following her death, an appeal was made to keep these copies together as a single collection.
- Media used
- Painting
- File & Archive locations
- Art Gallery of Ontario - Edward P. Taylor Research Library and Archives
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts / Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, QC
- Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, QC - Media Centre
- National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
- University of British Columbia - Fine Arts Library
- Vancouver Art Gallery, BC - Library
- Musée de Charlevoix, QC
- Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, QC
- Canadian Museum of Civilization Archives, QC
- Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- Canadian Art in Brazil : Press Reviews. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 1945
- "Travaux de Sculpture au Salon du Printemps." La Presse (Montreal) 31 Mar. 1924: 22
- "Une exposition du plus grand intéret." La Presse (Montreal) 6 Dec. 1941
- Art Gallery of Toronto. P.E. Borduas, Marie Bouchard, Denyse Gadbois, Louise Gadbois, Alfred Pellan: Exhibition, February 1942. Toronto: Art Gallery of Toronto, 1942
- Baker, Victoria, et al. Scenes of Charlevoix 1784-1950. Montreal: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1982
- Bennett, Paul. "L'heritage artistique d'un couple villegiateurs." Le Devoir (Montreal) Ottawa: 26 Aug. 2006: D4
- Eber, Dorothy. "What Quebec's 'Primitives' Don't Know About Art is Making Them Rich." Macleans 78.7 (3 April 1965): 17-19
- Eber, Dorothy and Gilles Hénault. "La mode est aux peintres folkloriques." Macleans 5.6 (Jun. 1965): 23-25
- Gendreau, Andrée. Charlevoix, terre d'origine, lieu de l'autre. Quebec: Université Laval, 1982
- Heller, Jules and Nancy. North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century. New York: Garland, 1995.
- Hubbard, R. H. Painters of Quebec: The Maurice and Andrée Corbeil Collection. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1973
- Kobayashi, Terry and Michael Bird. A Compendium of Canadian Folk Artists. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1985
- MacDonald, Colin S. The Dictionary of Canadian Artists. (Volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker) Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2009.
- McKendry, Blake. Dictionary of Folk Artists in Canada: From the 17th Century to the Present. Elginburg: Blake McKendry, 1988
- McMann, Evelyn de Rostaing. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Formerly Art Association of Montreal: Spring Exhibitions, 1880-1970. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988
- Nixon, Virginia. "Gallery round-up: Humorous bronze sculptures and calm, alienated fantasy." Gazette (Montreal) 3 May 1975: 52
- Pageot, Edith-Anne. "Ambiguités de la réception critique de l'exposition 'Canadian Women Artists', Riverside Museum, New York, 1947." RACAR 27.1-2 (2000): 123-34
- Palardy, Jean. Peintres populaires de Charlevoix / Primitive Painters of Charlevoix. Montreal: National Film Board of Canada, 1947
- Portal, Marcel. "La fille du Moulin César de Charlevoix." Le Progrès régionale (Chicoutimi) 30 May 1973
- Reference Division, McPherson Library, compilers. Creative Canada: A Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Creative and Performing Arts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, University of Victoria, 1971
