Galerie Molinas

Canadian painter and cabinetmaker. He learnt cabinet making in his father's shop after finishing his elementary schooling at the Quebec Seminary. During his apprenticeship he also took some drawing lessons from François Baillairgé. As early as 1800 his reputation as a skilled craftsman won him a commission to make an organ case for the church of Notre-Dame, Montreal. Two years later he opened his own cabinetmaking workshop, where he also produced such painted works as signs and lettering. Roy-Audy gradually evolved from craftsman to artist; between 1818 and 1824 he completed his artistic training by making copies of European paintings. He occasionally painted portraits but mainly made religious pictures for parish churches (e.g. St Peter in Prison, Boucherville, St Famille). Despite advertising in the newspapers, his business in Quebec collapsed, and he moved to Montreal around 1830. It was during this period that Roy-Audy began to concentrate on portraiture. He painted original portraits or copied those of the famous, according to commercial demand. Among his best-known works are portraits of clergymen and public figures, including Mgr Rémi Gaulin and Abbé François Norbert Blanchet (both 1838; Quebec, Mus. Qué.). Roy-Audy's style was that of a primitive painter, characterized by meticulous linear treatment of form. His portraits recall stereotyped, stylized masks, which nevertheless manage to capture the underlying personality of the subject. Nothing is known of his career after 1838.

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