Simone-Mary Bouchard

Simone-Mary Bouchard, born in 1912 in Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, was a self-taught painter and textile artist renowned for her paintings in a style of folk art. The Bouchard family is iconic in the important tradition  of folk art in the Charlevoix region of Quebec. Simone-Mary was one of 15 children brought up in a  former flour mill in Baie St Paul, Le Moulin César, now a designated Quebec Heritage Property. Of her six sisters, four became nuns, in the Antoniennes de Marie in Chicoutimi. Marie-Cécile, and Laure-Marie entered in 1947, Edith-Marie in 1954 and Annette in 1955.

Simone-Mary’s subject matter included the still life and landscapes of the Charlevoix region. Her paintings have  been featured in various exhibitions and numerous collections. She was self-taught and considered the most talented of the 3 Bouchard sisters who were also painters (Edith-Marie and Marie-Cécile are her two sisters who were artists). 

Serge Gauthier, Président de la Société Historique de Charlevoix published:

“Among the many cultural exchanges between vacationers and residents of Charlevoix, the folk art movement remains one of the most significant. It allowed a generation of Charlevoix artists to gain recognition far beyond their region. […] Many folk artists from Charlevoix rose to prominence thanks to the efforts of Maud Cabot and Patrick Morgan, such as the Bouchard sisters of Baie-Saint-Paul, and especially Simone-Mary […] who was even accepted into the Montreal Contemporary Arts Society and exhibited alongside Paul-Émile Borduas, Alfred Pellan, and Stanley Cosgrove.”[1]

In 1945, at the youthful age of 32 Simone-Mary died from a bout of tuberculosis. 

Several of Bouchard’s paintings are in public collections including a self portrait at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Additionally, Bouchard’s works have been featured in exhibitions such as the Première exposition des Indépendants at Palais Montcalm in Quebec City in 1941 and the Salon du Printemps at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1945. Louise Gadbois introduced the Bouchard sisters to Max Stern, who organized the exhibition “Les trois soeurs Bouchard” in 1952.[2]  

Exhibited:

1941 : Première exposition des Indépendants, Palais Montcalm, Québec

1945 : Salon du Printemps, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Posthumous exhibitions 

1946: Galerie Morgan, Montréal (retrospective exhibition organized by the Contemporary Arts Society)

1947 : Riverside Museum, New York

1947 : Willistead Art Gallery, Windsor

1947 : Dominion Gallery, Montreal (retrospective)

1952 : Dominion Gallery, Montreal (retrospective)

1975 : Galerie Gilles Corbeil, Montreal

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Footnotes: 

[1] Serge Gauthier, “Les peintres populaires de Charlevoix (1930–1960),” Encyclobec, last modified 19 July, 2002, https://encyclobec.ca/region_projet.php?projetid=287 .

[2] Richard Dubé and François Tremblay, Peindre un pays : Charlevoix et ses peintres populaires (LaPrairie, QC: Édition Broquet Inc., 1989), 68.