Sugartime, Quebec
SOLD, Will post if I find another.
Albert Cloutier
Sampson Matthews Silkscreen 1944
Signed by Supervisor A.J. Casson
Framed Size 34 x27 in.
$895.00
Born in Leominster, Mass., U.S.A., of Canadian parents who moved back to Canada in 1903. He received encouragement in the arts from his parents and started painting at Monument National at the age of eleven. He was apprenticed with Smeaton Bros., Mtl. (1918-21). He was employed by Associated Engravers, Mtl. (1922-25); Batten Ltd., Mtl. (1926-29). He then became a freelance graphic designer and illustrator in Mtl. (1929-40), in Ott. (1946-48) and Montreal from 1948. In his own painting he was influenced in his early work by reproductions of French Impressionists, Group of Seven and Cézanne’s pictorial form. His later style was based on an intensified realism, abstracted to a pure plastic form. Essentially a painter and graphic artist, he worked in oils, water colours, tempera, clay, wood and metals. Dorothy Pfeiffer once wrote, “His draftsmanship is colorful and certain in interpretation and design. Cloutier carefully plans what he intends to express, then unhesitatingly sets it down.” His commissions include: 450 ft. square frieze in 1939 for the Canadian Pavilion in collaboration with Edwin Holgate at the New York World’s Fair; mural for the Astra Car of the Canadian Pacific Railway passenger train; 12 panels for Salle Bonaventure, Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Mtl., covering subjects of music, handicrafts and culinary arts; a mural for Le Carignan restaurant at Place Ville Marie, Mtl., painting in dyes on fabric – soldiers from the Régiment de Carignan-Salières in full battle-dress. He designed and illustrated Pathway to Greatness (1959) for the Canadian Pulp & Paper Assoc., a book which described the development of the St. Lawrence River into the St. Lawrence Seaway. He worked for the Govt. of Canada as Art Director for the Wartime Information Board (1941); Rapid Grip & Batten Ltd., and later as Official War Artist with the RCAF (1943-46). He did silkscreen work for Sampson Matthews Limited. For over two years he lectured at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, in Montreal and Hull, Quebec. Cloutier’s paintings are a celebration of the beauty of the Canadian landscape. His affiliations were: FCA (1941); CSPWC (1948); ARCA (1951), RCA (1956); Arts Club, Mtl. (1951) Pres. (1957-59); CSGA (c. 1952); ADCM Pres. (1953); Nat. Soc. of Art Dirs., NYC. His work was shown at the Klinkhoff Gallery, Mtl.; Arts Club, Mtl.; with his wife on the Arkadia a Greek Lines ship where he exhibited his work and held discussions during a cruise. He is represented in the collections of: NGC, Ott., Can. Pulp & Paper Assoc., Mtl.; Seagram, Mtl.; Imperial Oil Ltd., Tor.; Dept. External Affairs, Ottawa and elsewhere. He died in St. Hilaire, Quebec, at the age of 63.
