Jacques de Tonnancour

Jacques Godefroy de Tonnancour was born on 3 January 1917 in Montreal, Quebec.{{cite web|title=Jacques de Tonnancour |url=http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=5474|publisher=National Gallery of Canada|accessdate=12 October 2013}} He studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal in 1937 but after three years left as he found the teaching too conservative. He admired the work of Goodridge Roberts{{cite book|last=Reid|first=Dennis|title=A Concise History of Canadian Painting|url=https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00reid_0|url-access=registration|year=1973|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Toronto|isbn=0195402065|page=[https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00reid_0/page/203 203]|quote=During the early forties the chaste delicacy of [Goodridge Roberts'] painting, as seen most notably in figure pictures like Nude (NGC) of 1943, inspired the respect and emulation of a number of young Montrealers, principally Jacques de Tonnancour.}} and Paul Emile Borduas.{{cite book|last=Reid|first=Dennis|title=A Concise History of Canadian Painting|url=https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00reid_0|url-access=registration|year=1973|page=[https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00reid_0/page/215 215]}} He joined the Contemporary Arts Society of Montreal in 1942.{{cite web|last=Hill|first=Charles C.|title=Interview with Jacques de Tonnancour (Artist)|url=http://www.gallery.ca/cybermuse/enthusiast/thirties/interviews_e.jsp?idocumentid=22|publisher=National Gallery of Canada|accessdate=13 October 2013}}

Though he admired Borduas as a painter, he was not in agreement with the political direction of the Automatistes. In 1948, he helped compose the manifesto which Alfred Pellan used to establish the Prisme d'yeux group. "We seek a painting freed from all contingencies of time and place, of restrictive ideology, conceived without any literary, political, philosophical or other meddling which could dilute its expression or compromise its purity" stated a translation of Prisme d'yeux that was published in Canadian Art.{{cite book|last=Reid|first=Dennis|title=A Concise History of Canadian Painting|url=https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00reid_0|url-access=registration|year=1973|page=[https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00reid_0/page/227 227]}} This group opposed those who would sign the Refus Global later that year, feeling that painting should not be a political act.

de Tonnancour had a long and active career as an artist, moving between representational and abstract approaches; producing paintings, sculptures, collages and photographs at various points in his career. His work is included many public collections including the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec,{{cite web|url=https://collections.mnbaq.org/fr/artiste/600000413|title=Jacques de Tonnancour|website=www.collections.mnbaq.org|accessdate=18 January 2020}} National Gallery of Canada,; Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery,{{cite web|title=Artefacts Canada|url=http://www.pro.rcip-chin.gc.ca/bd-dl/artefacts-eng.jsp?emu=en.artefacts:/Proxac/ws/human/user/www/ResultSet&upp=0&rpp=10&m=1&w=NATIVE%28%27ARNAME%20=%20%27%27DE%20TONNANCOUR%27%27,%27%27DE%20TONNANCOUR,%20JACQUES%27%27,%27%27DE%20TONNANCOUR,%20JACQUES%20GODEFROY%27%27,%27%27DE%20TONNANCOUR,%20JACQUES%20GODFREY%27%27,%27%27DE%20TONNANCOUR%27%27,%27%27DE%20TONNANCOUR,%20JACQUES%27%27,%27%27DE%20TONNANCOUR,%20JACQUES%20GODEFROY%27%27,%27%27DE%20TONNANCOUR,%20JACQUES%20GODFREY%27%27%27%29|publisher=Government of Canada|accessdate=13 October 2013}} Concordia University; Carleton University Art Gallery; Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; Art Gallery of Hamilton; Confederation Centre Art Gallery; Museum London;{{cite web|title=Welcome to our online collection|url=http://www.museumlondon.ca:8080/emuseum/|publisher=Museum London|accessdate=13 October 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131013075014/http://www.museumlondon.ca:8080/emuseum/|archive-date=13 October 2013|url-status=dead}} Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery; among others.

In 1958, works by de Tonnancour along with those of James Wilson Morrice, Anne Kahane and Jack Nichols represented Canada at the Venice Biennale.{{cite web|title=Past Canadian Exhibitions |work=National Gallery of Canada at the Venice Biennale |url=http://www.gallery.ca/venice/80.htm |publisher=National Gallery of Canada |accessdate=12 October 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013125245/http://www.gallery.ca/venice/80.htm |archivedate=13 October 2013 }} He was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1977.{{cite web|title=Members since 1880 |url=http://www.rca-arc.ca/en/about_members/since1880.asp |publisher=Royal Canadian Academy of Arts |accessdate=11 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526215339/http://www.rca-arc.ca/en/about_members/since1880.asp |archivedate=26 May 2011 }}

de Tonnancour taught at the Université du Québec à Montréal, the University of British Columbia and Mount Allison University. Among his students were Claude Tousignant{{cite book|last=Reid|first=Dennis|title=A Concise History of Canadian Painting|url=https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00reid_0|url-access=registration|year=1973|page=[https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00reid_0/page/284 284]}} and Graham Coughtry.{{cite book|last=Reid|first=Dennis|title=A Concise History of Canadian Painting|url=https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00reid_0|url-access=registration|year=1973|page=[https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00reid_0/page/290 290]}}

de Tonnancour retired from painting in 1982 to concentrate on entomology. In 2002, Les Éditions Hurtubise published Les Insectes. Monstres ou splendeurs cachées written and illustrated by de Tonnacour.{{cite book|last=de Tonnancour|first=Jacques|title=Les Insectes. Monstres ou splendeurs cachées|year=2002|publisher=Les Éditions Hurtubise|location=Montreal|isbn=978-2-89428-512-1 |url=http://www.editionshurtubise.com/catalogue/1146.html|accessdate=13 October 2013|language=French}} The volume won the Prix Marcel-Couture in 2002.{{cite web|last=McLauchlin|first=Matt|title=Jacques De Tonnancour |url=http://www.metrodemontreal.com/art/detonnancour/index.html|work=MONTREAL BY METRO|publisher=Matt McLauchlin|accessdate=13 October 2013}} An English edition was published in 2002.{{cite book|last=de Tonnancour|first=Jacques|title=Insects Revealed: Monsters or Marvels?|year=2002 |publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, New York|isbn=0801440238|oclc=49552004 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49552004}}

de Tonnancour died on 13 January 2005, aged 88, in Montreal, Quebec.

• 1968 – Medal, Canada Council
• 1979 – Prix Louis-Philippe-Hébert
• 1979 – Officer of the Order of Canada{{cite web|title=Jacques G. de Tonnancour, O.C., O.Q.|url=http://www.gg.ca/honour.aspx?id=410&t=12&ln=de%20Tonnancour|publisher=Government of Canada|accessdate=13 October 2013}}
• 1986 – Honorary doctorate, Concordia University{{cite web|last=Landsley|first=P.|title=Doctorat honorifique – Éloge de Jacques de Tonnancour|url=http://archives.concordia.ca/fr/tonnancour|publisher=Concordia University|accessdate=13 October 2013|date=June 1986}}
• 1990 – Honorary doctorate, McGill University
• 1993 – Officer of the National Order of Quebec

• [http://www.stm.info/en/about/discover_the_stm_its_history/art-metro/list-artworks/place-saint-henri-station-jacques-de Place-Saint-Henri station – sculpture by Jacques de Tonnancour]
• [http://www.artpourtous.umontreal.ca/voir/artistes/j-g-de-tonnancour/ art pour tous – University of Montreal, works by Jacques de Tonnancour] {{in lang|fr}}

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Category:1917 births

Category:2005 deaths

Category:Officers of the National Order of Quebec

Category:Members of the Order of Canada

Category:Artists from Montreal

Category:Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts

Category:20th-century Canadian painters

Category:Canadian male painters

Category:École des beaux-arts de Montréal alumni

Category:20th-century Canadian male artists

Category:Canadian collage artists