The minimalist effect of Jean Paul Lemieux’s portraits from his classical period (1956 – 1970) conceal what they owe to universal visual culture, such as the refinement of the chiseled profiles of ancient Egypt, the medals of classical Rome and the Italian painting of the Quattrocento; or the plastic solidity of the figures of the French Post-Impressionist Georges Seurat (1859 – 1891). These influences informed the painter’s new style, which favoured distilled landscapes crossed by long horizons, suggestive of the vast Canadian northern spaces. During this period, Lemieux’s most prosperous and famous, his landscapes were painted on horizontal supports, while the vertical format was reserved for portraits.
Dame au collier is an example of the individual profile portrait works developed by Lemieux in the late 1950s, and which would become highly prized by Canadian collectors in the early 1960s. Brigitte (1957, private collection) is undoubtedly the archetype of this kind of portrait, introducing a pose that enhances the features of the face in profile, treated in a single continuous line from head to chest.
In 1961 and 1962, Lemieux painted two portraits of women with light-brown hair, pulled up in a bun, to reveal the fine curve of their necks. Le collier (1961, private collection) and Dame en noir (1962, private collection) are similar to Dame au collier, except for the small format of the latter.[1] The resemblance to these two works justifies placing its creation circa 1962, as indicated by the dealers’ labels on the verso of the work. In addition, we know that Lemieux was then producing portraits on small surfaces (10 x 8 inches), as evidenced by the exhibition in which he participated in December 1961, which brought together 11 of them.[2] Unfortunately, the absence of documentation does not allow us to know whether Dame au collier appeared in this particular show.
The Quebec City newspaper Le Soleil reported, “As soon as the exhibition opened … all of Lemieux’s paintings were removed in a few hours by art lovers from the Vieille Capitale.”[3] The journalist describes “typical portraits, with inner faces of a fragile and moving sensitivity.… Few colors, little material, everything is given to the work so that it suggests, that it spiritualizes, but without insistence, those who look at it.”[4] Is this not the same effect that Dame au collier exudes, with its profile that cuts out against the airy background a narrow forehead, a straight nose, generous lips, a slightly receding rounded chin to which the arch of a long, elegant neck clings gently? The young woman’s proud and thoughtful posture is slowly revealed. The two rows of pearls that shine on the pale skin of her throat as well as her head ornaments make her an effigy of urban bourgeois society. Lemieux knew this company well, since he and his wife came from it, as did the majority of his clientele.
Sometimes, Lemieux names his portraits. Although he had accepted a few official commissions, the painter instead depicted figures or characters that populated his inner world and that he reconstructed on the canvas very simply: a few half-tone colour planes—here in green and red—were used to define the clothing and the receding landscape. As for the finely modulated flat areas of the surface, obtained by superimposing delicate layers of pigment, they bear witness to the same care and the slow, laborious process that Lemieux brought to his large compositions.
We thank Michèle Grandbois, author of Jean Paul Lemieux au Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, for contributing the above essay, translated from the French. This work will be included in Grandbois’s forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work.
1. Both Le collier and Dame en noir are reproduced in black-and-white in Guy Robert, Lemieux (Ottawa: Stanké, 1975), 228. In addition, Dame en noir was sold by the Roberts Gallery, Toronto, in 1963.
2. Lemieux, Picher, Gagnon and Côté was presented at Galerie Gérard Zanettin, 28 Côte de la Montagne, Quebec City, December 9 to 20, 1961. Invitation card, Institutional Archives of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, made accessible by Nathalie Thibault, whom I thank.
3. Paule-France Dufaux, “Carré d’art,” Le Soleil (Quebec City), December 18, 1961.
4. Paule-France Dufaux, “Une peinture jeune, riche vibrante de 4 Canadiens,” Le Soleil, December 9, 1961.