Édouard Jasmin (1905 1987) was a Canadian artist from

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, known for his ceramic platters in which he sought to capture scenes of modern Quebec.

Career

Édouard Jasmin was born in Saint-Laurent (today part of Montreal). He left school early to work at different art-related jobs since he was talented in that area. From 1923 to 1933, he ran an import business, then opened a restaurant in the basement of his home on rue Saint-Denis, Montreal, then got a job as a handyman and from 1960 to 1976, at the Service des parcs de la ville de Montréal. In his restaurant he started to paint, decorating the walls and furniture and also drawing and painting independently. He also began to work with clay and, upon retirement, created small narrative murals on large platters for which he became known. In a 1985 interview, Jasmin said:

I always try to find the amusing, the pleasant side of life….So I like to create fantasies and oddities, sometimes exaggerated, and if they make people laugh, then I too am happy.

Jasmin died in Montreal in 1987. His fonds is in the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales à Montréal.

Selected public collections and exhibitions

Jasmin's ceramic work is in the collection of the

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) is a public provincial museums of Canada, provincial art museum based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The art museum's primary building complex is located in downtown Halifax and takes up ...

; the

Canadian Museum of History The Canadian Museum of History () is a national museum on anthropology, Canadian history, cultural studies, and ethnology in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The purpose of the museum is to promote the heritage of Canada, as well as support related res ...

; the

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 5,000 years of history with nearly 80,000 works from six continents. Follo ...

; and other institutions. In 2022, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, one of the main repositories of Canadian folk art along with the Canadian Museum of History, included 16 of Jasmin's platters which it had recently purchased in a show titled ''Folk/Funk''.

Career

Selected public collections and exhibitions

References

Further reading