L'Archevêque, André

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André L'Archevêque, a great Montreal painter

A great Canadian master, painter, caricaturist and illustrator, André L'Archevêque was born in Montreal in 1923 (died in 2015). He studied at the Montreal School of Fine Arts, the Montreal Graphic Guild, Sir George William University and the Famous Artists School in New York. Research internships in France allowed him to study the drypoint technique at the Lacourière-Frélaut studio in Paris.

"In the Quebec world of figurative painting, André L'Archevêque had, during the 1980s, the effect of an artistic bomb. The galleries that represented him were unable to satisfy the demand because there were so many collectors looking for one of his rare paintings."

A landscape painter

"In the world of landscape art, André L'Archevêque left his mark on Quebec painting in the 1970s and 1980s. His art was met with incredible enthusiasm at the time. So much so that it was very difficult to get your hands on one of his works. Today, while demand is no longer the same, L'Archevêque remains an original landscape painter in a segment of pictorial expression that offers few new approaches. His consistently smooth touch fills the eye with a simple but very significant pleasure.

It cannot be said that this painter has left an indelible mark on our history of art, but some of his works still provide a keen pleasure to the eye. A creator whose work may still surprise in the future..." Robert Bernier.

A Quebec painter, André L'Archevêque's works can be found in countless private and commercial collections in Canada, the United States, Great Britain, Switzerland and France.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLE(S):

André the Archbishop (1923)

[…] His style appeared, in the milieu, as a renewed representation of nature, although the foundations of his plastic language were attached to tradition. Seemingly contradictory, this statement nevertheless has the merit of showing to what extent landscape painting suffered from the absence of new visions. The Archbishop delivers a very careful style that gives his works a poetic imprint of great beauty. His unctuous and fragmented touch leads the spectator into a magical space that is nevertheless anchored in reality in a very tangible way.

The Archbishop worked for a long time as an illustrator in the advertising field. Several of his graphic designs have become classics, including his creations for Quebec milk producers and for Prudentielle, which recount notable sporting exploits such as Canada's hockey victory over Russia. Previously, his many popular book covers earned him a certain notoriety. His extraordinary manual dexterity allowed him to design pictorial works of a rarely achieved plastic quality, but it also, paradoxically, served him poorly on certain occasions by causing him to tip into an overly illustrative, not to say sentimental, atmosphere. The climates and representations created by the Archbishop remain fragile spaces that are easily threatened with falling into the trap of exacerbated romanticism.

Of all L'Archevêque's talents, one should not overlook his as a colorist, who sensitively marks his paintings. There are few equivalents in landscape painting, and even in Quebec painting as a whole. His chromatic harmonies are simply breathtaking, grandiose. The artist always manages to find tonal variations that give his palette an exemplary richness. Never too strong or sweet, his iridescent designs offer their splendor to the eye. His most significant works are composed of landscapes excluding all human traces […]

Source: Robert Bernier, Painting in Quebec since the 1960s, Les Éditions de l'Homme, 2002, L'Archevȇque, André L'Archevȇque (1923), pages 296-297.

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