Lot 52
PAUL VANIER BEAULIEU, R.C.A.
Additional Images
Provenance:
Galerie Valentin, Montreal, QC
Private Collection, Montreal, QC
Note:
In a charming piece of serendipity, this still life by Beaulieu arrives at auction at the same time as one by his good friend Stanley Cosgrove (see lot 53). Beaulieu’s long career intersected with the dynamic revitalization and modernization of the Québec art scene, yet the artist’s direction was his own, independent of the more recognizable movements of his peers. Time spent in Paris kept him apart, with Beaulieu gaining more influence from the work of Bonnard, Dufy, Braque, Matisse and Picasso than from Borduas, Pellan or Lyman. His first exhibition in Montréal in 1945 featured harlequin figures alongside still lifes, and, in the words of Germain Lefebvre, “reflected his fondness for Cézanne's manner of cubism, Matisse's fauvist colour accents, Braque's compositional strength and the clarity of Picasso's drawing.”
The still life was an enduring and important subject for Beaulieu. In 1951, the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris purchased Beaulieu's Still Life with Yellow Bottle, the first work by a contemporary Canadian artist to be acquired by the institution. Private collectors were also captivated by Beaulieu’s still lifes, and to quote Lefebvre again, “delighted in seeing a pitcher, some fish, or pears in a fruit bowl executed in a manner akin to cubism.”
CONDITION DETAILS
The work is in excellent condition with no visible issues to report. Under ultraviolet light, nothing fluoresces.
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