William Raphael: Life & Work

A painter, art educator, and medical illustrator, William Raphael (1833–1914) was the first Jewish artist to establish a professional practice in Canada. Active during the latter half of the nineteenth century—a period that saw the rise of photography as a commercial medium—Raphael made a name for himself as a portraitist, painting the likenesses of some of Quebec’s most prominent politicians, businessmen, and military figures. He further excelled at genre scenes, and his works are celebrated for their important documentation of Indigenous communities, urban life, leisure, and architecture in Canada before and after Confederation.

 

In William Raphael: Life & Work, author Pierre-Olivier Ouellet traces the artist’s career from his early beginnings in Prussia to his training in Berlin, through to his time in Quebec. The book details how after Raphael moved to Montreal in 1857, he met the famed photographer William Notman (1826–1891) and worked for him painting sets and colourizing photographs. This early-career connection helped to situate Raphael within the province’s burgeoning cultural scene and placed him at the centre of the Art Association of Montreal’s formation in 1860. He soon became noted for his ability to depict a wide range of subjects including faces, natural life, anatomy, and religious scenes.

 

Throughout his prolific career as a painter and teacher, Raphael developed a loyal audience and received acclaim, becoming one of the first members of the Royal Academy of Art in 1880. His unparalleled contributions to the visual folklore of Quebec have strengthened our understanding of nineteenth-century Canada. Combining realism with a picturesque sensibility, Raphael’s portraits and depictions of daily life and civic spaces captured the spirit of an emerging country. Today, Raphael’s paintings hang in the nation’s leading collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the McCord Stewart Museum, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

 

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