Miyuki Tanobe

b. 1937

Miyuki Tanobe was born in Morioka, Japan and started to learn oil painting at the young age of 11 under Japanese master Itaru Tanabe. In 1956, she enrolled at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts where she studied the old Japanese technique of Nihonga under Chou Ota and uncontested Nihonga master, Seison Maida. After obtaining her Professor in drawing and painting diploma in 1959, Tanobe participated in various art competitions and exhibited at a variety of venues including the spring and fall salons held by  INTEN, the Society of Professional Painters, which had a chapter for practitioners of Nihonga. Tanobe became a member of INTEN which gave her the status of Professional artist, thus enabling her to teach. Until the spring of 1963, she kept exhibiting, gave private lessons and travelled before leaving Japan to further her studies in France.

Tanobe settled in Paris and first frequented the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. She later enrolled at École Supérieure Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris where she studied under Chapelain Midy. While in France, she held a solo-show at Galerie Royale de Paris and also took the opportunity to travel across Europe, notably in Italy, Switzerland, England, Spain, Germany and Greece. She went back to Japan after completing her studies in 1966 but kept travelling to various countries such as Kenya, Egypt, Cambodia and India while perfecting her painting skills. In 1971, due to professional and social reasons, Tanobe decided to leave Japan for good. She came to Canada after being invited by a man she had met in Paris five years earlier, Maurice Savignac, who would become her husband.

When Tanobe arrived in Canada, she first settled in Montreal but soon after she married Maurice Savignac and the couple moved to Saint-Antoine-sur Richelieu. She started painting works depicting events or typical scenes of daily life in Quebec and in 1972, Tanobe had a first solo exhibition in Montreal where her works were well-met by the public and art critics. From then on her success kept growing while her works grew in demand. In 1973, the Japanese Consulate General in Montreal invited Tanobe to paint a large work for the Japanese pavilion at Montreal’s cultural fair, which the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts bought shortly after.

During the next three decades, Tanobe exhibited in group exhibitions held at various venues such as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1974, 1979), Place des Arts (1978), Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (1979), New York Art Expo (1982), National Library of Canada (1983, 1984, 1989) and Pratt & Whitney Canada’s Les Femmeuses exhibitions (1989-2006). She also held many solo shows in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Trois-Rivières, New York and Tokyo at various private galleries and prestigious venues such as Place des Arts (1980, 1981), Musée d’Art de Joliette (1981), Quebec Delegation in New York (1987) and the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo (1991). Retrospective shows were held at the Japanese pavilion of the Montreal Botanical Gardens in 1993 and at Musée Pierre-Boucher in 1995.

Over the span of her career, Tanobe received many prizes and honors: in 1981, the Canada Council for the Arts gave her a prize for her illustration works for Gilles Vigneault’s “Les gens de mon pays”; in 1982, she participated in the illustration of a book with other well-known Canadian artists Stanley Cosgrove, Claude LeSauteur, Henri Masson and André L’Archevèque; in 1983, she illustrated one of Quebec’s most well-known book, Gabrielle Roy’s “Bonheur d’occasion”; she was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1994; she was made Officier de l’Ordre National du Québec in 1995; in 1999, the Royal Canadian Mint issued a 50 cents coin representing one of her subjects; in 2002, the Quebec delegation in Paris chose one of her works along side Jean-Paul Riopelle, Marc-Aurèle Fortin and René Derouin to decorate its china. That same year she became a member of the Order of Canada and also received a medal from the Jubilee Order. Tanobe was the subject of many studies, documentaries and TV specials made by the National Film Board of Canada, the CBC and Radio-Québec, and many books were written on her life and works. Her style and technique are taught in several Universities in Quebec and New England. At age 73, she is active on the art market and still paints in her studio at Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu.

Collections:

- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, QC)
- Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (Quebec City, QC)
- Musée d’Art de Joliette (Joliette, QC)
- Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (Montreal, QC)
- Musée des Beaux-Arts de Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke, QC)
- Musée Louis-Hémon (Péribonka, QC)
- Musée Laurier (Montreal, QC)
- Musée de Lachine (Lachine, QC)
- Musée Pierre Boucher (Trois-Rivières, QC)
- La Pulperie de Chicoutimi (Chicoutimi, QC)
- Concordia University (Montreal, QC)
- Pratt & Whitney (Montreal, QC)
- Shell Canada (Montreal, QC)
- La federation des Caisses Populaires Desjardins (Montreal, QC)
- Montreal Botanical Gardens (Montreal, QC)

Affiliations:

- Royal Canadian Academy (1994)
- Officier de l’Ordre du Québec (1995)
- Order of Canada (2002)