FRANCOIS DEZIEL

 Canadian - Montreal - (1914-1992)

François Déziel (Saint-Mathieu, Mauricie, Quebec, July 10, 1914 - Montreal, May 9, 1992) is a Quebec painter.

François Déziel was born in Saint-Mathieu, Mauricie, Quebec, on July 10, 1914, to Henri Déziel, a farmer, and Laura Hill, who had a total of eleven children.

An accident near the family farm radically transformed the life of François Déziel, who was barely six years old. Indeed, ridden imprudently on a hay wagon, he fell and broke the pelvis and the two hips. For lack of a specialist doctor to treat him, his fractures and tuberculous arthritis of the hip caused a permanent handicap. Several years later, he consulted an eminent specialist in Montreal, Dr. Ed J. Samson, an orthopedic surgeon who, after a few surgeries, allowed him to walk relatively normally again.

In terms of education, François Déziel had attended primary school in the Shawinigan area, where he also went to high school. Very early, he devoted himself to drawing. In 1937, he found a job at the Forest Research Laboratory of McGill University, while pursuing drawing and painting classes at the École des Beaux-Arts in Montreal, three nights a week. This will be the case for eight years.

He took classes with great masters including Alfred Laliberté, in modeling and sculpture, and Joseph A. Saint-Charles, one of the greatest portrait painters of his time. Having left his job at the laboratory in July 1944, he graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in the spring of 1945. He then said: "Here I am painter". It is also this year that he made the beautiful painting "Boucherie chez uncle Freddy", one of his greatest works, if any.

In 1949, he innovated by painting in the open, in front of passers-by at the corner of the streets, surrounded by his paintings for sale. Artists like Dumouchel and Borduas took over. Then others, all over Old Montreal. Great friend of the painter Léo Ayotte, François Déziel made with him an exhibition of paintings in Shawinigan in 1951 and it was then that the mayor of the place, François Roy, awarded him the title of "Painter of the Mauricie". He then began giving classes at his studio on Delorimier Street in Montreal. In addition, following steps taken in 1950, he created the Square des Arts in 1958, assisted by René Durocher. This activity was subsequently administered by the City of Montreal. François Déziel also taught Shawinigan in the early 1960s.

In 1967, the artist was also present at La Ronde, during the Montreal International Exhibition, to create more than 700 charcoal portraits. In 1968, as a result of financial assistance from his many friends, he went to Paris. In 1969, his art classes were moved from the Salon des Cedres to the Shawinigan Hotel to a larger venue at the recently inaugurated Shawinigan Cultural Center. He also gave classes at Trois-Rivières.

There were several exhibitions of François Déziel's works, either solo or in the company of other artists. Déziel also has to his credit the realization of a huge totem in memory of a pioneer, Amable Leblanc, who lived on an island of Lac Simon. François Déziel was also heavily involved in the Canadian Union of the Disabled, an organization founded in 1941, first as secretary to become its director in 1951.

The artist died in 1992 at the Santa Cabrini Hospital in Montreal at the age of 77. His funeral service was sung at the parish church of Saint-Gérard-des-Laurentides in Shawinigan and his mortal remains were buried in the cemetery of that parish.

The archives of the Seminary of Trois-Rivières (St Joseph Seminary) hold the "Fonds François-Déziel", consisting of 1322 photographs, 263 slides, 1 map, 1 map, 3 sound recordings, 1 videotape, 13 cartoons on postcards, several drawings, 1 sketch, 1 ribbon, strands of hair and 1 printing plate. (Fonds FN-0664).

François Déziel's person is listed in the "Québec Cultural Heritage Registry" (Ministry of Culture and Communications of Quebec).

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Oil on Canvas - 14" X 18

Signed: Lower Right

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