M.-A. Suzor-Coté (Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté)

1869-1937

Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté was born in Arthabaska, Quebec. He received his regular education at the Académie Commerciale des Frères du Sacré-Coeur in Arthabaska. He then reportedly studied drawing at the Institut National des Beaux-Arts in Montreal under Abbé Joseph Chabert (c.1885-1887). From 1886 to 1891, he was apprenticed to painter-decorator Joseph-Thomas Rousseau. He assisted Rousseau on various decorative projects for Quebec churches and religious institutions, notably the parish church of St-Christophe d’Arthabaska, the chapelle du Sacré-Coeur in the Académie Commerciale des Frères du Sacré-Coeur and also the St-Anne-de-Sorel.

In 1891, he left for Paris with painter Joseph St-Charles. There he studied at Léon Bonnat’s studio, where he took preparatory classes for the École des Beaux-Arts. In Paris, Suzor-Coté joined a strong delegation of Canadian artists which included Henri Beau, Joseph St-Charles, Ludger Larose, Oziaz Leduc, George Delfosse, Joseph-Charles Franchère, Maurice Cullen, Louis-Philippe Hébert, Charles Gill, W.E. Atkinson, Blair Bruce, Paul Peel, George A. Reid and many others. He met French painter Henri Harpignies and later studied at his studio in 1892. He also took classes under Fernand Cormon (1893) and attented Académie Colarossi.

While in Paris, Suzor-Coté exhibited for the first time with the Art Association of Montreal at their Spring Exhibition of 1892 and did so regularly until 1935. In this same year, he was accepted at École des Beaux-Arts de Paris. During this period, he travelled and painted in Belgium, in the northern French provinces of Brittany and Normandy and in the Cernay area, south-west of Paris. In 1894, he exhibited at the Salon de Paris.

In the spring of 1894, he went back to Canada where he settled for the next three years. During this period, he painted many landscapes in oils and pastels while still working on commissions doing portraits and decorating churches all across Southern Quebec. He participated in the Royal Canadian Academy Exhibition in Montreal (1896) and Ottawa (1897) and became a regular exhibitor at the Royal Canadian Academy until 1932. It was also during this period that Suzor-Coté was visited for the first time by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who became Prime-Minister of Canada a few months later. They developed a friendship and would meet on many occasions afterwards. At the end of 1897, he boarded a boat with Canadian painter Ozias Leduc and went back to Paris to complete his studies.

In 1898, he attended more classes at Académie Julian under Jules Lefebvre, Tony Robert-Fleury and Benjamin Constant as well as at Académie Colarossi in Paris. From 1898 to 1901, he stayed in France where he was quite busy. In addition to his studies and painting trips in the areas of Cernay and Senlis, he exhibited at the Salon de Paris every year and at the Canadian Pavilion of the Paris World fair (1900). He won many prizes during those years, including the first prize for composition and figure painting at a competition at Académie Julian (1898), a silver medal at Académie Colarossi for drawing from nature (1898), a bronze medal at the Paris World Fair (1900) and an honourable mention at the Salon de Paris (1901). He was also appointed to the Canadian Fine Art Jury for the Paris World Fair (1900) and Officer of the Académie de France (1901).

In the summer of 1901, Suzor-Coté went back to Arthabaska where he attended a banquet organized in his honour at the Hotel Plaisance. Also present at this banquet were Sir Wilfrid Laurier and his wife, who commissioned a painting from Suzor-Coté. Later that year, Suzor-Coté opened his first solo exhibition at the Scott & Sons Gallery in Montreal. Following the show he was active in the Montreal and Arthabaska regions before meeting with the Minister of Public Works in Quebec City regarding a commission to decorate the Quebec Legislative Assembly building.

Before heading back to Paris in the winter of 1902, Suzor-Coté made a detour to Ottawa to present a completed canvas of the village of Arthabaska to Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Back in Paris, he exhibited again at the Salon de Paris and started work on the commission for the Quebec Government. It was also during this period when he started working with clay and sculpture that he met Canadian Sculptor Alfred Laliberté. In 1903 Suzor-Coté went back to Arthabaska following his father’s death. He stayed in Canada for six months working in Montreal and Arthabaska, and exhibiting again at Scott & Sons Gallery where the National Gallery of Canada acquired three paintings. He then returned to Paris in 1904.

From 1904 to 1907, he worked on commissions for Canadian collectors making copies after European paintings at the Louvre. He made sketching trips to Brittany, Normandy, reportedly travelled to England, Scotland and probably Spain. During his absence, Alfred Laliberté occupied Suzor-Coté’s studio in Paris. He also exhibited again at the Salon de Paris in 1905, 1906 and 1907. He then returned to Canada with Charles Huot and Alfred Laliberté in late summer of 1907 and divided most of his time between Arthabaska and Montreal. At the end of 1907, a major exhibition took place at Scott & Sons Gallery in Montreal where one-hundred and fifty of Suzor-Coté’s works were exhibited.

In 1908, he spent most of his winter in Arthabaska. He then travelled to Ottawa where he visited the Lauriers. Afterwards, he left for the United-States and headed to Virginia, where he executed murals for Thomas Fortune Ryan’s Charlottesville estate. By early 1909, he was back in Canada. It was during this year that he completed many of his Historical Canvases and the portrait of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Furthermore, he did many other commissions for various Canadian political figures that same year.

He exhibited in Toronto with the Ontario Society of Artists for the first time in 1910 and also participated in the Canadian Art show in Liverpool, England. In October of that year, He held a show of recent works at the Scott & Sons Gallery in Montreal. In spring of 1911, he went back to Paris and exhibited at the Salon de Paris. Later that year he was elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy. He came back to Canada in 1912 and was part of the Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition in Halifax where three of his works were shown. He had another exhibition at Scott and Sons in December with fifty of his works.

In 1913, Suzor-Coté was regularly working in bronze. He became a member of the newly-formed Montreal Arts Club and participated to their First Inaugural Exhibition. Later that year, Edmund Morris invited him to exhibit at the Canadian Arts Club in Toronto. It was also in 1913 that he first sent works to the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, and would do so on a regular basis until 1930. By this time, critics were praising his works and his popularity as an artist reached a high point.

In 1914, he kept showing his works with the Ontario Society of Artist and won the Jessie Dow Prize at the Art Association of Montreal. The next year, for the first time, he exhibited his nudes in Montreal and Toronto. In 1916, he illustrated the first edition of Louis Hémon’s popular novel ‘Maria Chapdelaine’ and was elected a full member of the Royal Canadian Academy.

Even though Suzor-Coté had never agreed on taking a young artist under his wing, he accepted Rodolphe Duguay in 1918 as his first and only student. In 1919, following Maurice Cullen, he moved his Montreal studio to a nearby building built by Alfred Laliberté which included studios and residences. When Suzor-Coté was working in Arthabaska during the summer, Rodolphe Duguay occupied his Montreal studio.

In the years that followed, Suzor-Coté kept working in his studios in Montreal and Arthabaska. He was regularly helped by Duguay on many of his commissions until Duguay left for France to pursue his studies in 1920. Suzor-Coté kept exhibiting at the Royal Canadian Academy, at the Canadian National Exhibitions and at the Art Association of Montreal where he was awarded his second Jessie Dow Prize (1925). He also exhibited in private galleries, universities, libraries and Museums across Canada and elsewhere during the next two decades. The Quebec Government acquired a first work in 1922 and did so on many occasions in the years that followed. In 1924 and 1925 he sent works at the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley, England, and was also part of the Los Angeles Pan-American Exhibition in 1925. That year, Suzor-Coté’s sculptures dominated his entries at the art shows, and the next year he held a sculptures and plasters show at the Watson Art Galleries in Montreal.

In 1927, he suffered a paralysing stroke that prevented him from working. Nonetheless, he was still represented at the Exposition d’Art Canadien at the Musée de Jeu de Paume in Paris and at the Royal Canadian Academy show held at the Imperial Art Gallery in South Kensington in England. A retrospective show was also held at Watson Art Galleries in Montreal that year.

In 1928, following the doctor’s orders, he moved to Daytona Beach with his nurse, Mathilde Savard, whom he later married in 1933. While in Daytona, he started slowly working again, drawing, painting and sculpting. The next year, the Quebec Government organized a retrospective show at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montreal gathering one-hundred and fifty-two of his works. In 1930, he briefly went back to Montreal to arrange the sale of his remaining works and vacate his studio.

In the years that followed, he spent most of his winters in Havana, Cuba. In 1933 the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec was inaugurated and a special space was created for Suzor-Coté’s works. He died in 1937 in Daytona, Florida, at the age of 68. He was later inhumed in his hometown of Arthabaska. Following his death, many solo and group exhibitions were held at different private galleries and museums in Canada, the United-States and Europe. Retrospective shows were held at the Centre d’Art de Trois-Rivières (1966), the Musée Laurier (1976, 1987), the National Gallery of Canada (1978, 2002), the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (1991, 2002), the Maison des Arts de Laval (1991) and the Musée de l’Amérique Française (1993, 1994).

Collections:

- National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, QC)
- Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (Quebec City, QC)
- Musée d’Art de Joliette (Joliette, QC)
- McMichael Canadian Art Collection (Kleinburg, ON)
- Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, ON)
- Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax, NS)
- Art Gallery of Hamilton (Hamilton, ON)
- Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC)
- Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, MN)
- Edmonton Art Gallery (Edmonton, AB)
- New Brunswick Museum (Saint John, NB)
- Glenbow Museum (Calgary, AB)
- Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (Montreal, QC)
- Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (Victoria, BC)
- Museum London (London , ON)
- Musée des Beaux-Arts de Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke, QC)
- Musée des Ursulines de Trois-Rivières (Trois-Rivières, QC)
- Musée Louis-Hémon (Péribonka, QC)
- Musée de la Civilisation (Quebec, QC)
- Musée de l’Amérique Française (Quebec, QC)
- Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon, SK)
- Collection des Prêtres de Saint-Sulpice de Montréal (Montreal, QC)
- Confederation Centre Art Gallery and Museum (Charlottetown, PEI)
- Musée Beaulne (Coaticook, QC)
- The Stewart Museum at the Fort Ile Sainte-Hélène (Montreal, QC)
- Musée Laurier (Victoriaville, QC)
- Concordia University (Montreal, QC)
- Nipissing University (Notrh Bay, ON)
- Université de Montréal (Montreal, QC)
- The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, ON)
- McCord Museum of Canadian History (Montreal, QC)
- Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery (Owen Sound, ON)
- Société du Patrimoine Religieux de Saint-Hyacinthe (Saint-Hyacinthe, QC)
- Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa, ON)
- Holland Collection (Virginia, USA)
- Toronto Club (Toronto, ON)
- Bombardier Inc. (Montreal, QC)
- Power Corporation of Canada (Montreal, QC)
- La Pulperie de Chicoutimi (Chicoutimi, QC)

Affiliations :

- Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy (1911)
- Royal Canadian Academy (1916)
- Canadian Arts Council
- Montreal Arts Club (1913)