Key Works

For more than six decades—from the time he left the École des beaux-arts in Montreal at the beginning of the 1930s until his late career at the end of the 1980s—Jean Paul Lemieux practised painting that reflected a highly personal vision of Quebec, in landscape, portraits, narrative, and religious scenes. His thoughtful approach led him toward a deepening formal purity, culminating in the celebrated images of what is now called his classic period, between 1956 and 1970. These key works show an artist who unceasingly sought to renew the figurative painting of his time.