Galerie Molinas

Born in Nicolet, Quebec, he studied at the Séminaire of Nicolet but put aside his classical studies in his first year of philosophy. He left his father's farm in late 1908 for business college in Montreal. He actually had his eye on painting and drawing for he wanted to be an artist more than anything else. A little over two years later he enrolled as an art student at the Council of Arts & Manufactures, and worked at odd jobs to pay for his keep. He stud­ied with Charles Gill, Joseph Saint-Charles, Jobson Paradis, Joseph Franchère and Alfred Laliberté (1911-20). For a short time he worked under William Brymner at the Art Association of Montreal (1915-16), with Georges Delfosse (1912-17), Maurice Cullen (1917). In 1918 he worked under Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté who regarded him as a protégé and made it possible for him to study in Paris. In 1920 he entered the Académie Julian under Jean Paul Laurens (1920-24); the Académie Colarossi under Henri Morisset (1921-27); Académie Adler, Paris (1924-5); Ecole des Beaux-Arts (1920) and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière (1921-24). He received a Quebec Government Grant in 1920. He made trips to Brittany (1922) (1923) (1926); Normandy (1925); Italy (1925). Through a friend Paul-Albert Moras, French painter and printmaker, he explored avenues of engraving and finally focused on woodcuts and bought two books on wood engraving. He also familiarized himself with book decoration and book­binding. By 1927 he was back in Canada and held an exhibition at the Saint-Sulpice library in 1929 which was followed later by a number of other shows between 1929 and 1949. At Nicolet he was busy with several projects including painting of a large religious canvas for the church at Sorel. He settled in Nicolet for the rest of his life. He had a life-long ambition of illus­trating deluxe editions of poems by noted Quebec writers especially the finest poems of Dr. Nérée Beauchemin. This project did not materialize and for a period he gave up printmaking but when he was asked to illustrate a collection of poems by Ulric-L. Gingras entitled Du Soleil sur l'étang noir, he returned to woodcuts (1933). The next substantial undertaking was his woodcuts for Clément Marchand's Courrier des villages (1941). His wood­cuts, which also appeared on the covers of six other books by Quebec authors, were powerful, often dramatic and lyrical. His outstanding ones include: Midnight Fisherman (c. 1934) - Mus. du Qué.; The Portageur (1936) - NGC; Serenity (1936) - NGC; Why have you come, my Friend? (1942), a portrait of Jesus in the Garden. His small sketches in oils are full of rich colour often of landscapes around his home in Nicolet. He also did landscapes in pastel. The Musée du Québec has his medium-sized canvas, La ferme de François Roy (1927), NGC his Landscape (1931). He died in Nicolet at the age of 82. He was awarded Member, Order of Canada (C.M.) in 1973.
 

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