Henri Julien studied at the Abbot Joseph Chabert’s art school in Ottawa, however his art career began in the 1860s as an engraver and lithographer for newspapers. He quickly became the best-known newspaper illustrator and political cartoonist in Canada. In 1888 he became artistic director at the Montreal Daily Star, which thus became the first Canadian newspaper to employ a full-time editorial cartoonist. Julien stayed with the paper for twenty-two years illustrating historical and journalistic pieces, as well as drawing caricatures of members of Parliament in the House of Commons. His best known work was of rural French Canadians, which he began depicting around 1875 and continued for the rest of his life. As of the year 1900, Julien also took up painting, receiving many commissions for scenes of French Canadian culture and regularly exhibiting with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. He was a remarkably versatile visual artist, as he was able to alternate between various painterly styles.
In “The Woodcutter”, dating to 1906, a French-Canadian Habitant is smiling and smoking a pipe while hard at work sawing. This charming winter scene is an example of a small number of oil paintings, in addition to many drawings and watercolours, that Julien created to illustrate the Habitants’ daily life and character.
