Sold for: $163,800

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the Artist by a Private Collector in the 1960s, Montreal
Private Collection, Quebec

Jean Paul Lemieux’s iconic portraits are masterfully simple. His ability to blend and shade his muted, simple colours and convey a full depth of feeling and overall mood is remarkable. Lemieux often explored the changing ideologies and politics of Quebec in his figures. This silhouetted ecclesiastic dignitary, likely a bishop or archbishop, is depicted in golden-yellow vestments that speak of his religious devotion. By their colour, stance and gaze, Lemieux’s austere figures speak volumes in their utter simplicity about the power of church and state, feelings of love and loneliness, personal connection and emotional distance. Here his focus is on the fine profile of the devoted Monseigneur, who gazes upward and off the edge of the canvas, engaging with something that is, to him, much greater than ourselves. Beautifully modeled in yellow, white and grey, with the slightest touch of pink in his lips and in the lowest portions of the distant horizon, he is bathed in golden light and, indicated by the slight smile on his lips, he is rapt.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars