PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the Artist, circa 1960s

LITERATURE
Guy Robert, Lemieux, 1978, page 122
Marie Carani, Jean Paul Lemieux, Musée du Québec, 1992, the 1959 canvas L’Été, collection of London Regional Art and Historical Museums, reproduced page 147, the 1963 canvas Le Témoin reproduced page 149 and the 1958 canvas Mon ange reproduced 159

With some exceptions, such as his paintings of well-known figures, Jean Paul Lemieux was not a portrait painter - he painted his figures from memory, or from his imagination. He stated, “When I get tired of landscapes I paint figures. I never use models; I couldn’t.” Nevertheless, our Personnage en rouge has a name - Nicolette, although she has not been discovered among the women mentioned in Lemieux’s letters or his diary from the period of the 1950s and 1960s. Nicolette is an old French name, very popular in the sixties in France and French communities in Quebec.

A woman like Nicolette - with dark eyes, short hair and a long, graceful neck, dressed in a simple red dress, is the subject in a number of paintings from the late 1950s and early 1960s. Nicolette is an archetype - she appears in the canvas L’Été, (Summer), posed in one of his archetypal simplified landscapes. In the 1963 canvas Le Témoin (The Witness), she stands sorrowfully over the deceased Christ mourned by a woman in black, and in the 1958 canvas Mon ange (My Angel), she stands sillhouetted against a similar abstracted background.

Lemieux imparted a psychological intensity to his figures. In Personnage en rouge (Nicolette) we see a woman of certainty - her gaze is focused, emphasized by the darkness of her pupils and the shading around her eyes. Her slight smile imparts warmth to her direct gaze. She is the prime focus, filling the canvas, with only an indeterminate gray colour field behind her, while a darker gray bar at the bottom of the canvas suggests a horizon line. The saturated red of her dress is arresting - and a glow from it transfers up to her neck and face, imparting a sensation of vitality to her personality.

Personnage en rouge (Nicolette) is an extraordinary figurative work by Lemieux, and it is an outstanding example of his late 1950s and early 1960s period. It has not been previously offered for sale.

This work will be included in Michèle Grandbois's forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist's work.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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