Born in Leominster, Mass., U.S.A., of Canadian parents, he moved to Canada in 1903. He received encouragement in the arts from his parents and started painting at the Monument National at the age of 11. Mostly self taught, he took painting trips with A. Y. Jackson and Edwin Holgate. For a number of years he worked as a commercial artist but turned to the field of fine arts exclusively.
He was influenced in his early work by reproductions of the French Impressionists, the Group of Seven, and the pictorial form of work by Cézanne. His later style was based on an intensified realism, abstracted, and a pure search of plastic form. Essentially a painter and graphic artist, he worked in oils, watercolours, tempera, clay, wood, metals and mosaics. Dorothy Pfeiffer once wrote, “His draftsmanship is colourful and certain in interpretation and design. Cloutier carefully plans what he intends to express, then unhesitatingly sets it down.”
He completed a frieze 450 foot square in 1939 for the Canadian Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair; mural for the Astra Car of the Canadian Pacific Railway passenger train; 12 panels in the Salle Bonaventure, Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal, covering subjects of music, handicrafts and culinary arts; a mural for Le Carignan restaurant at Place Ville Marie, Montreal, where he painted with dyes on fabric – the subject was of soldiers from the Regiment de Carignan-Salières in full battle dress. He designed and illustrated a book entitled “Pathway to Greatness” published May, 1959 by the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, Montreal, describing the development of the St. Lawrence River to the St. Lawrence Seaway.
During his career as an artist Cloutier worked for the Government of Canada as Art Director in the Wartime Information Board in 1941; Rapid Grip and Batten Limited, and later as an Official War Artist with the Royal Canadian Air Force, 1943-6. He lectured at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Montreal, and in the City of Hull, Quebec, for over two years. He was a member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour; Canadian Society of Graphic Art; Royal Canadian Academy (ARCA 1951 - RCA 1956); Art Directors’ Club, of Montreal (Pres. three times); National Society of Art Directors where he also held office.
He is represented in a number of museums including the National Gallery of Canada. His work has been shown at the Klinkhoff Gallery in Montreal, the Arts Club, Montreal, and on the Arkadia, a Greek Lines ship where he also held discussions during a cruise in 1959. He did silkscreen work for Sampson Matthews Limited.
Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I: A-F", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977
