Œuvres d'art

“With an acute eye for character and a profound humanity, Montreal draughtsman and painter, Louis Muhlstock, created a portrait of the Depression in gentle, intimate drawings of marginalized people. His paintings of deserted streets and houses, done before and after the Second World War, are spare images that convey silence and memory”[1].

Much has been written about Louis Muhlstock by learned art scholars. Esther Trepanier writes a particularly valuable contribution to his appreciation and understanding in Jewish Painters of Montreal [2], for those of us who had the privilege of knowing Louis, even as an acquaintance, we will all have endearing stories of the artist as a legend, a raconteur and as a bit of an entertainer showing his works and his commendations. Well into his 90s in age, if one telephoned to make an appointment to visit, cognisant of his timeline, Louis would always reply to the effect that, the day you wish to come by, phone, if I answer the call, come over. From the days when we would occasionally visit with Louis, an aged Canadian artist who had painted in the neighbourhood of St. Famille Street for some 60 years, an artist who was witness to a huge evolution in art in Canada and who, regardless, was always true to himself. Louis Muhlstock as a great Canadian artist of his generation.

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Footnotes:
1. “Louis Muhlstock”, The National Gallery of Canada, Accessed March 16, 2021, https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/louis-muhlstock.
2.Esther Trépanier. Jewish painters of Montreal : witnesses of their time, 1930-1948 (Montréal: Éditions De L’homme, 2008).