Sold for: $23,400

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Montreal

Paul Beaulieu traveled to Paris in 1938 and purchased a studio in Montparnasse, painting landscapes, figurative works and still lifes. During the Nazi invasion in 1940, he was apprehended and interned at St-Denis until 1944 where, surprisingly, he was still allowed to paint. After his release he reinstalled himself in his Paris studio, not returning to Canada until 1973. He was a fine printmaker as well as a painter, and the National Gallery of Canada has three of his prints with still life subjects in its collection. Beaulieu’s still lifes show the influence of Pablo Picasso, as seen in the spirited Nature morte, with its modernist approach to a classic subject in which he flattens and uptilts the table surface, and plays back and forth with dimensional space. While in Paris, he continued to show in Canada – for example, at the Dominion Gallery – as well as internationally in New York, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. His work is also in international museums such as the Bezalel Museum in Jerusalem and the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars