Aurore Benoit. Textile artist. Maker of ornamental hooked mats in silk and cotton. Sainte-Madelaine de Saint-Hyacinthe. Quebec. Active 1920’s to 1950’s. Mademoiselle Benoit was a pioneer in the making of these fine ornamental hooked mats in Quebec. She was one of the few who signed her work (always with a /B hooked in a lower corner: the slash on the left was in red and the B in black).
Aurore Benoit worked with the ‘Cercle de fermieres’* at Sainte-Madelaine-de-Saint-Hyacinthe hooking Quebec scenes; many of them inspired (sometimes copying them) by landscapes done by Quebec painters such as Clarence Gagnon, Horatio Walker and others. Jean Palardy (see separate article) designed models for these hooking groups (he was commissioned by Henry Morgan & Co in Montreal). Designs for them to hook and sell at better galleries in Quebec and Ontario. They were extremely popular and sold at high prices. (See Image below of one of Jean Palardy’s designs.)
These artists had other help as well. Clarence Gagnon, when he was not in Paris, painted extensively in Charlevoix County and was involved with the traditional ‘metiers’ as well. His training as an artist was helpful to these artists in dying their silk fabrics and simply inspiring them to go further. (I have seen several of Aurore Benoit’s larger studio hookings that, from a short distance, I thought were Gagnon landscapes. These circles existed up and down the Gulf of St. Lawrence; Riviere-duLoup, Saint-Valerin, Notre-Dame-du-Lac and others. It should be mentioned that some members of the Charlevoix group of artists resented this copying.
*’Cercle de Fermiere’ is the Quebec equivalent of the ‘Womens Institute’.
A link to the Gallery and one of Aurore Benoit’s mats for sale:
http://lyleelderfolkart.com/gallery-artists/featured-works-of-aurore-benoit/
An image from the Gauvreau book of Mlle Benoit at work:
Aurore Benoit. Hooking a silk and cotton mat.
A very fine signed Hooked Mat by Aurore Benoit. Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec. C. 1950:
Aurore Benoit. Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec. Silk and Cotton Hooked Mat.
A Cotton on Burlap mat hooked by an unknown artist of one of Palardy’s designs:
Hooked Silk and Cotton mat from a Jean Palardy design.
Detail of the label on the reverse:
Palardy design. Detail of the label on the reverse.
