Jeanne Rhéaume, c. 1974
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Montreal in 1915, Jeanne Leblanc Rhéaume worked in a variety of media, including oils, watercolours, acrylic and tapestries. She attended the École des Beaux Arts (1934-36) and the Art Association of Montreal. She also became involved with fellow artist, Alfred Pellan and signed the manifesto "Prisme d'Yeux," a short-lived movement which argued for a wider, more open understanding of what modern art could be. With her scholarship she traveled in France, Italy, Belgium, and England. Despite her success in Quebec, she settled in Florence in 1952, sending forty to fifty canvasses back to Canada every year for shows in major cities. She studied weaving in France, Sardinia, Switzerland and Germany (1969-71).
SUBJECT
Rhéaume paints landscapes and still-lifes.
TECHNIQUES
Prolific and accomplished, Rhéaume worked in a variety of media, including oils, watercolours, acrylic and tapestries.
EXHIBITIONS
Following her graduation in art, she began exhibiting in Montreal at such galleries as the Galerie Parizeau (1945) the West End Gallery (1949) and at the Galerie l’Art français (nowadays Galerie Valentin). She began exhibiting her tapestries along with her paintings in 1972. She exhibited extensively in Montreal, and also had solo shows in Quebec, Percé, Mont-Orford, Ste. Adèle, Ottawa, Rome, and Florence.
AWARDS
Warmly received by critics, her work won a number of awards including the Third Grand Prize of Quebec (1946), a prize for oils at the Spring Show of the Museum of Fine Arts (1950) and a scholarship for study abroad (1948). She continued to win awards throughout her career, including being chosen to represent Canada at the International Assembly of Artists, Venice (1952), the Jessie Dow Prize at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1957, 1958), a Canada Council Painting Study Grant (1959), and several weaving study grants (1969, 1970, 1971).
COLLECTIONS
Her work can be found in the collections of the Art Gallery of Vancouver, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Bank, Canada Council, the Department of External Affairs, Ottawa, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Quebec, and the Maison du Québec, Paris.
Source: Canadian Women Artist History Initiative, Concordia University
