Jacques Godefroy de Tonnancour, LL. D. (3 January 1917 – 13 January 2005) was a Canadian artist and art educator from

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

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, ...

Life and work

Jacques Godefroy de Tonnancour was born on 3 January 1917 in Montreal, Quebec. He studied at the

École des beaux-arts de Montréal École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

in 1937 but after three years left as he found the teaching too conservative. He admired the work of Goodridge Roberts and Paul Emile Borduas. He joined the

Contemporary Arts Society The Contemporary Arts Society was founded by John Lyman in 1939 to promote modern art in Montreal, at a time when Canada was dominated by academic art. Lyman was the Society's first president. The additional officers were vice-president Paul-Émil ...

of Montreal in 1942. Though he admired Borduas as a painter, he was not in agreement with the political direction of the

Automatistes Les Automatistes were a group of Québécois artistic dissidents from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The movement was founded in the early 1940s by painter Paul-Émile Borduas. Les Automatistes were so called because they were influenced by Surre ...

. In 1948, he helped compose the manifesto which

Alfred Pellan Alfred Pellan (born Alfred Pelland; 16 May 1906 – 31 October 1988) was an important figure in twentieth-century Canadian painting. Biography Alfred Pellan was born on 16 May 1906 in the Saint-Roch quarter of Quebec City. His mother, Régi ...

used to establish the ''Prisme d'yeux'' group. "We seek a painting freed from all contingencies of time and place, of restrictive ideology, conceived without any literary, political, philosophical or other meddling which could dilute its expression or compromise its purity" stated a translation of Prisme d'yeux that was published in ''Canadian Art''. This group opposed those who would sign the Refus Global later that year, feeling that painting should not be a political act. de Tonnancour had a long and active career as an artist, moving between representational and abstract approaches; producing paintings, sculptures, collages and photographs at various points in his career. His work is included many public collections including the

Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (), abbreviated as MNBAQ, is an art museum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The museum is located in National Battlefields Park and is a complex of four buildings. Three of them were purpose-built for ...

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

,; Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University; Carleton University Art Gallery;

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 ...

;

Art Gallery of Hamilton The Art Gallery of Hamilton (AGH) is an art museum located in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The museum occupies a building on King Street (Hamilton, Ontario), King Street West in downtown Hamilton, designed by Trevor P. Garwood-Jon ...

;

Confederation Centre Art Gallery The Confederation Centre Art Gallery (CCAG; ) is an art museum that forms a part of the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. The art museum pavilion forms the northeast portion of the Confederation Centre ...

;

Museum London Museum London is an art and history museum located in London, Ontario, Canada. It is located near the forks of the Thames River. It started its operations in 1940 with London Public Library and amalgamated with London Regional Art Gallery and Lon ...

;

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV) is an art museum located in Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Situated in Rockland, Greater Victoria, Rockland, Victoria, the museum occupies a building complex; made up of ...

; and

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a public art gallery in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest public art gallery in the Regional Municipality of Durham, of which Oshawa is a part. The gallery houses a significant collection of Canadian conte ...

; among others. In 1958, works by de Tonnancour along with those of

James Wilson Morrice James Wilson Morrice (August 10, 1865 – January 23, 1924) was one of the first Canadian landscape painters to be known internationally. In 1891, he moved to Paris, France, where he lived for most of his career. W. Somerset Maugham knew him a ...

, Anne Kahane and Jack Nichols represented Canada at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

. He was made a member of the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria on 16 ...

in 1977. de Tonnancour taught at the

Université du Québec à Montréal The (UQAM; ), is a French language, French-language public university, public research university based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest constituent element of the system. UQAM was founded on April 9, 1969, by the government o ...

, the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

and

Mount Allison University Mount Allison University (also Mount A or MtA) is a Canadian primarily undergraduate liberal arts university located in Sackville, New Brunswick, founded in 1839. Mount Allison was the first university in the British Empire to award a baccal ...

. Among his students were

Claude Tousignant Claude Tousignant (born December 23, 1932, in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian artist. Tousignant is considered to be an important contributor to the development of geometric abstraction in Canada. He masterly used alternating values of complemen ...

and Graham Coughtry. de Tonnancour retired from painting in 1982 to concentrate on

entomology Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

. In 2002, Les Éditions Hurtubise published ''Les Insectes. Monstres ou splendeurs cachées'' written and illustrated by de Tonnacour. The volume won the Prix Marcel-Couture in 2002. An English edition was published in 2002. de Tonnancour died on 13 January 2005, aged 88, in Montreal, Quebec.

Honors

* 1968 – Medal,

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to ...

* 1979 – Prix Louis-Philippe-Hébert * 1979 – Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

* 1986 – Honorary doctorate,

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

* 1990 – Honorary doctorate,

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

* 1993 – Officer of the

National Order of Quebec The National Order of Quebec ( French: ), also known as the Order of Quebec, is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Governor Jean-Pierre Côté granted royal assent to the (Natio ...

External links

Place-Saint-Henri station – sculpture by Jacques de Tonnancour

art pour tous – University of Montreal, works by Jacques de Tonnancour

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tonnancour, Jacques 1917 births 2005 deaths Officers of the National Order of Quebec Members of the Order of Canada Artists from Montreal Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 20th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters École des beaux-arts de Montréal alumni 20th-century Canadian male artists Canadian collage artists