Literature
Guy Robert, Lemieux, 1975, pp. 184-188;
Jean Paul Lemieux’s Garcon en Rouge is a compelling example of his work from the 1970s in which emotion begins to enter into his paintings. With elements of the spare, still, emotionally neutral images from the 1960s, and without the heavier brushwork that would come in the 1980s, this intimate work takes us directly into the eyes of the subject. A young boy in red, his collar tightly closed against the cold, gazes past us and over our shoulder. His eyes are drawn to the side and do not acknowledge us, diverted away in his own sphere, under a red cap that matches his coat. He is trapped in thoughts we can only guess at.
Lemieux’s ability to convey complex emotional states – or the complete absence of them – in his extremely spare brushwork, is universally noted. Here, he depicts so much with so little paint, leaving us to understand the rest on our own. With limited colour, limited volume, limited line, and an absence of detail, Lemieux gives us an ambiguous figure in an ambiguous landscape thinking ambiguous thoughts. The connection lies in the shared human experience – without regard to its particularity – that becomes the foremost concern of the work, with all elements that are extraneous to that removed. We cannot help but relate to this boy and to his experience, which, though the hand of Jean Paul Lemieux, somehow mirrors some aspect of our own.
Jean-Paul Lemieux, painter (b at Québec C, Qué 18 Nov 1904; d at Montréal, Qué 7 Nov 1990). Lemieux’s artistic universe is often classified as one of northern landscapes, flat, barren and infinite, but this preoccupation was only one characteristic of his work. He attended the École des beaux-arts in…
Jean-Paul Lemieux, painter (b at Québec C, Qué 18 Nov 1904; d at Montréal, Qué 7 Nov 1990). Lemieux’s artistic universe is often classified as one of northern landscapes, flat, barren and infinite, but this preoccupation was only one characteristic of his work. He attended the École des beaux-arts in Montréal from 1926-34, interrupted by a trip to Paris. After teaching at the École du meuble, he moved to the École des beaux-arts in Québec in 1937, remaining there until 1965. His work drew inspiration from Québec City and from Île aux Coudres, Charlevoix County, for which he held particular affection. His first paintings reflected daily life, portraits of relatives and familiar landscapes.
In the 1940s, Lemieux’s canvases (Lazare, 1941; La Fête-Dieu Québec, 1944) painted in fresco style summarized the attitudes of a people. His organization of subject and space was at that time influenced by the Italian primitivist school and early Québec folk art, which he collected avidly. Gradually his treatment of his subjects became simplified and his style more geometric. It was not, however, a stiff geometry, for the lines still vibrate, and colours are either transparent or pastel. Space opens up (Le Train de midi, 1956), and against a line of horizon appear hieratic figures (L’Été, 1959). Part of and yet distinct from the background, his figures evoke a world of dream and memory.
Often meditative and serious, Lemieux’s art can sometimes be humorous and lyrical, as in his illustrations of Gabrielle Roy’s books. His work is regularly exhibited in Canada and internationally, and he painted a number of commissioned portraits of public figures. In 1985 Lemieux published a limited edition bilingual collection of prints – one for each province and territory – entitled Canada-Canada.
