Lionel Bouchard. Sculptor. Baie-Saint-Paul, Charlevoix, Quebec. Active 20th century.

He was trained as a carpenter and electrician. He entered a religious order and although he was a sculptor and wood carver, much of Lionel Bouchard’s sculptural work was done in Church and Chapel furnishings.

Ref: Website of The Gallerie La Corniche:

http://www.galerielacorniche.com/blog/marie-cecile-bouchard/

Lucien Bouchard. Sculptor. Baie-Saint-Paul. Quebec. Active 20th Century. Moulin Cesar, Riviere-du-Gouffre, Charlevoix, Quebec.

Lucien Bouchard carved formal works, finished with varnish, and less formal painted ones full of charm and color. He began carving when he was very young, winning prizes with them and selling every thing that he made.  These were carvings of the Charlevoix country-side and farms and also fish. Wonderful carved and painted Trout and Salmon. He made Fish Salad bowls as well as his brother Stanley. (see Stanley Bouchard post.) He worked as a Cabinet Maker and carved most of his life.

A carving by Lucien Bouchard. With the ‘Moulin Cesar’ mark:

Lucien Bouchard. Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec.

The Lucien Bouchard ‘Moulin Cesar’ mark:

Lucien Bouchard. His mark.

A carving of a Fish by Lucien Bouchard:

Lucien Bouchard. Fish.

And another by Lucien Bouchard:

Lucien Bouchard. Fish Carving.

A few quotes from Jacqueline Tremblay (Nee Bouchard). (In an interview with a CMCC ethnologist.):

“I come from a family of artists. My aunt is Mary Bouchard, then there’s Lucien Bouchard, Stanley Bouchard, Arthur Bouchard, Cécile Bouchard, Édith Bouchard and Laure-Marie Bouchard, who created extraordinary sculptures. My other aunts and my mother also tried their hand at art. All of them were quite skilled.”

“My mother made hats. When I was little, I would watch her as she created an extraordinary hat from nothing. My grandfather also made fantastic things. I thought to myself, ‘These people are magicians.’ I wanted to be just like them, and I thought things like that happened at everyone’s house.”

“When I was a child, before going to bed, I would often watch my grandfather, (Joseph-Arsene) who spent a lot of time carving. I would watch what he was doing. I’d ask him, ‘What are you doing?’ And he’d answer, ‘I’m making a small sheep.’ I couldn’t see any sheep at all! But the next morning I would find the little animal on the windowsill.”

Ref: Can. Mus. of Hist. Website:

http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/arts/art-quebec/art-quebec3_6-e.shtml

A link to a Charlevoic County site and Lucien Bouchard:

http://pages.infinit.net/sqe1rl2/lubouch.html

Stanley Bouchard. Sculptor. Baie-Saint-Paul, Charlevoix, Quebec. Active second half 20th Century.

Stanley Bouchard, who remained a bachelor, was the oldest of the Bouchard brothers. His favorite subject was Fish. Trout in all its forms. He made simple ‘brochets” that he learned to carve when he was a child; simple carvings of a trout with a twig through it’s mouth and gills that hung on a wall as a decoration-these he learned from his father Joseph-Arsene. And he made elaborate turned wooden salad bowls with a carved and painted trout arching from one side to the other, serving as a handle, complete with a serving fork and spoon with carved and painted trout handles. And boxes in the shape of fish, with hinged tops, that could be hung on the wall as well. Stanley Bouchard began carving when he was 15. He carved other things than fish. He made models of mills, religious carvings, birds, animals and relief carvings of Quebec legends. Stanley Bouchard was shown in a number of exhibitions. He sometimes signed with a signature and  sometimes with a stamp (that he seemed to share with his brother, Lucien in later years), and sometimes with an “S. B.”  in paint or script. (We sometimes have  to look closely for this S.B. mark.)

One of Stanley Bouchard’s Carved Boxes: (1970’s):

Stanley Bouchard. Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec. Painted Box. Trout.

The Box Open:

Stanley Bouchard. Trout Box. Baie-Saint-Paul Quebec. Open.

The Reverse showing hangers:

Stanley Bouchard. Reverse of Box.

Joseph-Arthur Bouchard. Sculptor. Painter. Baie-Saint-Paul, Charlevoix, Quebec. Active 20th century.

Arthur Bouchard carved a wide range of subjects. Animals found around a Charlevoix farm, forest animals and birds were his favorites over the years but he carved people as well; and relief carvings of family life and village scenes. (See the McCord link below). In his early years he painted and was shown, with his sisters, in Galleries in Montreal and the U.S. In 1980, at the age of fifty he began sculpting full time.

Two Sheep. Early carvings by Arthur Bouchard. (C.1950):

Arthur Bouchard. Sculptor. Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec.

Carving of A Rooster By Arthur Bouchard. (C. 1990):

Rooster by Joseph Arthur Bouchard. Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec.

Carving of a Black Sheep. Joseph-Arthur Bouchard. (C. 1970):

Black Sheep. Arthur Bouchard. Sculptor. Baie-Saint-Paul Quebec.

A ‘Brochet’ or String of Fish by Arthur Bouchard (Trout):

Arthur Bouchard. Baie-St-Paul. Carving of two trout on a branch.

This link to the French Cultural Encyclopedia of North America has an article on the Bouchard and Richard families of sculptors and wood carvers. (In English):

http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/en/article-470/Animal_Folk_Art.html

And in French:

http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/fr/article-211/Art_populaire_animalier.html

Edith-Marie Bouchard. Painter. Sculptor. Moulin Cesar. Baie-Saint-Paul, Charlevoix, Quebec. Active mid 20th Century.

Edith Bouchard was the younger sister of artists Simone-Marie and Marie-Cecile Bouchard of Charlevoix County. Born in 1924, she didn’t begin to paint until the two older artists had stopped working. Simone-Marie had died and Marie-Cecile entered a convent. Her mother encouraged her to paint and, using Marie-Cecile’s colors and brushes, she painted. She had always sculpted. Smaller pieces for the Family shop, among many other things, and:  jewelry – little carved and painted Fish as brooches and earrings and a specialty of hers: carved and painted Maple Leaves with painted Charlevoix scenes on them. Her favorite subjects as a painter were naive pictures of house interiors that showed the traditions and customs of Charlevoix women. An art critic of the time commenting on Edith said: “Les soeurs Bouchard chantent leur Pays”.  (The Bouchard sisters ‘sing’ their country.)

A mounted and framed example of a carved and Painted Maple Leaf by Edith Bouchard. 1930’s:

Edith Bouchard. Painter. Baie-Saint-Paul, Charlevoix, Quebec. 1930’s.

A self portrait by Edith Bouchard:

Edith Bouchard. Oil on board.

The label on the reverse of the self-portrait:

Edith Bouchard. Label.

A Link to her Biography. Canadian Women Artist History Initiative website:

http://cwahi.concordia.ca/sources/artists/displayArtist.php?ID_artist=133

Edith and the Bouchard Sister’s Story. From ‘Le Patrimoine Immateriel Religeux website:

http://www.ipir.ulaval.ca/fiche.php?id=612

Ref:Charlevoix et ses peintres populaires
Dubé, Richard et François Tremblay, Peindre un pays: Charlevoix et ses peintres populaires, Laprairie: Éditions Broquet, 1989, 160 p. (Collection; Signature Plus), ISBN: 2-89000-105-9

Ref: National Gallery of Canada. Artists in Canada. Union List of Artist’s Files.Ottawa. 1982.