Monday, March 13, 2023

Artist of the Day, March 13, 2023: Napoléon Bourassa, a Québec architect, painter and writer (#1801)

Napoléon Bourassa (1827 – 1916) was a prominent architect, painter and writer whose offices were located in Montreal, Quebec.

Born in L'Acadie, Quebec, he studied at Sulpician College in Montreal. In 1848, he interned with Norbert Dumas in preparation for a legal career, but then chose to become a painter and studied with Theophile Hamel from 1850 to 1852.

He continued his education by visiting Paris, Rome and Florence accompanied by the German painter Johann Friedrich Overbeck, a member of the Nazarene movement. After this he established his art studio in Montebello.

Bourassa founded and directed the Canadian Journal and became vice-president of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society. Bourassa had several associates who became famous, including Louis-Philippe Hébert, François-Édouard Meloche and Olindo Gratton. He also sculpted the bust of his father-in-law Louis-Joseph Papineau.

He designed the "Chapelle Notre-Dame de Lourdes de Montréal" and the "Institut Nazareth et Louis Braille". One of his most familiar paintings is The Apotheosis of Christopher Columbus.

In 1877, he was a member of a commission of inquiry of the government of Quebec and went to France to study the organization, the functioning and the teaching methods of the schools of arts and crafts and the schools of drawing applied to industry, architecture and mechanics.

In 1880, he founded the National Gallery of Canada with his fellow artists. He consulted in 1883 for the construction of a building to house the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.

He died August 27, 1916, in Lachenaie. His daughter Adine published his correspondence in 1929. The "Fund-Napoleon Bourassa" was created in his honor at the University of Ottawa. His works were exhibited at Galerie L'Art Français

Napoléon Bourassa was married to Azélie Papineau, the daughter of the Quebec politician Louis-Joseph Papineau. One of his sons was Henri Bourassa, a journalist and the founder of the newspaper Le Devoir. 

© 2023. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Fund-Napoleon Bourassa or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Napoléon Bourassa
Madame Francois Bourassa, née Genevieve Patenaude mere de l'artiste. 1851
François Bourassa, père de l'artiste. 1851
Paysage européen. 1855
 Louis-Joseph Papineau. 1858
Hippolyte Fissiault dit Laramée. 1860
Ézilda Papineau. 1862
Madame Napoléon Bourassa. 1862-63
Les Petits Pêcheurs. 1864
Augustine Bourassa. 1865
La Misère. 1865
La Rivière des Outaouais à Montebello. 1865
Deposition de croix. 1867
Adine et Henri Bourassa, enfants de l'artiste. 1878
Église de Montebello. 1892
Montébello, Québec- Napoléon Bourassa, architect
Église Sainte-Anne de Fall River, 1893
Fall River Massachusetts-Napoléon Bourassa, architect.
La Méditation. 1896-97
La Peinture mystique. 1896-97
Le Petit Mendiant. 1897
L'apotéose de Christophe Colomb. 1905
L. J. Papineau. 1900

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