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Jean-Paul Lemieux. Jean-Paul Lemieux retrouve Maria Chapdelaine Stanke. Boxed set of ten lithographs. $75.00 A year after the centenary of the birth of Louis Hernon, which saw the publication of an important study by Nicole Deschamps et aI, Le Mythe de Maria Chapdelaine, and the reissuing of the 1933 edition of Hernon's novel with illustrations by Clarence Gagnon, another prominent Quebec painter has given us his 'reading' of that work, its characters and its drama. In the text accompanying his lithographs Jean-Paul Lemieux explains why he has been attracted to Hernon's book since he first read it some sixty years ago: 'Les Canadiens fran~ais sont en general tres fatalistes. lis subissent des epreuves sans se revolter, en ramenant les choses it des valeurs relatives et finalement en s'inclinant devant Ie destin inexorable. Toute l'histoire de Maria Chapdelaine l'exprime: Lemieux, whose art is full of isolated human figures set against vast, desolate landscapes, found a kindred spirit in Hernon and his 'landscapes : Yet Lemieux's rendering of ten scenes from Maria Chapdelaine lacks the ironic tension that he often establishes between his titles and the form and content of his canvases (e.g., Noces d'or). His interpretation of Maria Chapdelaine is the traditionally orthodox one diagnosed and then denounced by Nicole Deschamps. More about the accompanying text later. Now to turn to the prints themselves. The first lithograph (and coverillustration) is dominated by the figure of Maria, bundled up in winter clothes of brownish hues (the colour that dominates the folio), with a few vaguely defined human figures and farm buildings in the background, sparse against the snowy field. Maria has a rather pensive, faraway look in her eyes. The second print presents Fran~ois Paradis, also dressed in brown, except for a bright red sweater (reminiscentof Lemieux's LeChandail rouge). Fran~ois is ablond youth (too young?), whose eyes also reflect a dreamlike quality, rather than the 'temeraire' nature Hernon has given them. Lithographs three and four depict 'L'Eglise de Peribonka' and 'La Traversee de la Riviere Peribonka ,' both drawn from the early chapters of the novel. These and other outdoor scenes have more vitality than the rather static human portraits and give the feeling of motion, as well as barrenness and solitude. The fifth print, entitled 'Faire de la terre' (a key refrain in the novel), suggests to me the influence of Corot, and the impressionists, in the group of shadowy, brownish figures struggling to remove stumps. In the lower right is the tall, hatted figure of Maria, bringing food to the men. In the seventh print the Chapdelaine home and farm buildings are dwarfed by the nearby forest, snowy wastes, and brooding hills. Prints six, eight, and nine are all related to Fran~ois Paradis. The first, 'La Cueillette desbleuets: again has the immobility referred to above. 'Les Mille Ave' shows Maria, rosary in hand, praying for the safety of her beloved, her face and left side bathed in the eerie blue light of the moon, HUMANITIES 501 seen in the top left-hand corner of the print, through the window, a significant tapas in the novel. In fact, the window is here a sort of mise en abyme, for two-thirds of it reflects the pallid snow that surrounds Maria, and that dominates the external scenes. 'Le Norou": perhaps the most impressive of the prints, presents the oblique, snowshoed, reddishbrown , Chagall-like figure of Fran~ois, and suggests the ferocity of the storm through the bending boughs on his left. Although this lithograph is somewhat reminiscent of Clarence Gagnon, it is less representational and more symbolic than Gagnon's depiction of Fran~ois's destruction by the elements. The final print, 'La Visite: again has the tall figure of Maria, now opening the door to welcome her 'futur: Eutrope Gagnon. Lemieux's text is full of questionable judgments on Hernon's Maria Chapdelaine (its alleged 'authenticite' and supposed 'effacement de l'auteur: for example); his endorsement of the myth surrounding the work is seen in the following statement, which underlines a perceived 'contemporaneity' in the novel: 'Pour moi Ie pays de Quebec (du moins au...

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