Sylphide by Joseph-Charles Franchère

Born in Montreal, he studied with Joseph Chabert at the Institut national des Beaux-Arts, Montreal; with F.E. Meloche at Council of Arts and Manufactures, Montreal (c. 1887-88); with Jean-Léon Gérôme and Joseph Blanc at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1888-92); Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi, Paris.

Evidence of his mastery of portrait painting can be seen in his self-portrait (1894), in the coll. of Musée du Québec. He won three honourable mentions at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and two first prize medals as a student at evening shows in Paris. On his return to Montreal, he opened a studio and painted many portraits and religious murals. He also did landscapes, figure and genre paintings. He painted scenes in oil on board, oil on card, water colour and pastel. The National Gallery or Canada has four works by him: a study for a religious painting, a study of a plaster head of a woman, a rural genre scene, and a dancer with a tambourine, which provide a sampling of his subject matter. He painted in Quebec, Ontario, France, Belgium, Venice, Scotland and elsewhere.

He died in Montreal at the age of 55.

Literature Source:
"A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume 1: A-F, 5th Edition, Revised and Expanded", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1997