Jean-Paul Lemieux
Jean-Paul Lemieux (1904–1990) was a French-Canadian painter. He was born and lived in Québec City, where he painted the desolate, seemingly infinite spaces of the landscapes and cities of Québec. Many of his works capture an intense feeling of mystery.
From 1926 to 1929, Lemieux studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal. Upon graduating, he spent a year in Paris, where he studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and Académie Colarossi. He obtained a teaching diploma at the École des beaux-arts in Montreal in 1935. In 1937, he returned to Québec City as a professor at the École des beaux-arts de Québec, where he taught until 1965.
Throughout his career, Lemieux worked in several different styles. He depicted nature scenes in the 1930s, which were influenced by Québec regionalism. In the 1940s, he produced satirical paintings of urban and rural life. In 1955, after a year in France, Lemieux adopted a formal and conceptual approach to his landscapes. The haunting silence and sense of unease of these paintings became, in the 1970s, horrific visions of ruined cities, annihilated by nuclear attacks.
Lemieux received numerous awards and honours, including the Louis-Philippe Hébert Prize; the Molson Prize for the Canada Council; the Order of Canada, and the National Order of Quebec. He was honoured by the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal with a major retrospective exhibition in 1967. Subsequent tribute exhibitions were organized by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and the National Gallery of Canada. Lemieux's work has been featured in the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Museum London in London, Ontario, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. He was also a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.