René Richard (1895-1982), a famous Canadian painter, had two essential anchor points in Canada: Cold Lake, Alberta, and Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec.

 

In his personal journey, this great artist bears witness to essential facets of the Canadian landscape. He is essentially from the north, starting in Cold Lake, Alberta, where his father decided to move the family in 1911, leaving their native Switzerland. It was there, on Canadian soil, that young René Richard discovered the hardness and strength of the North. He then absorbed the light, intensity, and above all, the beauty of the North. He kept all of this in his memory throughout his life.

 

The remarkable pictorial composition of the North in Richard’s paintings comes from this experience. He never strayed from it. Cold Lake is fundamental in his vision. It is where he achieved his originality and depth as an artist. There he experienced both deprivation and splendor. His gaze sharpened, darkened a bit, exploded, and magnificently asserted itself on the canvas. Without Cold Lake, René Richard would not have become the great Canadian Northern painter that he is, and it is important to recognize this in a tangible way.

 

As an established man and soon-to-be recognized artist, René Richard spent calmer years in Baie-Saint-Paul after 1942. Had he forgotten the North? Certainly not, and he often went to the Charlevoix Mountains, not far from Baie-Saint-Paul, to find the North in this northern islet, which is located in what is now the Parc des Grands Jardins. There he rediscovered the North, remembered his youth and initial impulse. Without this isolated and little-visited site, he may not have settled in Baie-Saint-Paul. This place allowed him to continue his work and preserve his Northern roots.

 

The North marks René Richard's entire body of work. The North inhabits this painter, and he knows how to recreate it in his own way. The North is Canada. Let us never forget that. René Richard lived in Cold Lake and Baie-Saint-Paul, especially for this dream of the North, which constituted his essential roots. It is important to understand that as an artist, René Richard owes as much to Cold Lake as he does to Baie St Paul.  I encourage Cold Lake in particular to rediscover René Richard and to honour him.

 

Serge Gauthier, Ph.D.

Historian and Ethnologist

President of the Historical Society of Charlevoix 

Researcher at the Research Centre of the History and Patrimony of Charlevoix 

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