Born in Montreal, Quebec, he studied at the Institut des Arts Appliqués (formerly Ecole du Meuble) where he was influenced by a course on the history of art given by Maurice Gagnon. Here he studied under Jean Paul Lemieux and Paul-Emile Borduas and taught later in life. He started painting seriously in 1944 following his army service.
About 1960 he attracted attention with his gouaches which he sometimes created with granular consistency. They were described as a symphony of blue, indigo and mauve contrasts. He exhibited this work at the Galerie Libre. By 1965 he had done considerable work in inks and oils in which he found the shapes of spheres (suns and moons) of particular interest.
Viewing his work at the Galerie Camille, Herbert Réa Montbizon noted, “...this show at Herbert's is something of an exercise in dualism. While the one half containing the large oils is clean, cool and sober, the other half, composed of coloured inks in correspondingly smaller format, presents itself as ambiguous, mystifying and dreamlike. These paintings are like vedute of some intimate memories. Only the presence of the disc reminds one of the larger works. In the inks it appears as opening into space or as mass afloat, shaped into solid bodies. Here, line and mass are skillfully interchanged, with line, forkelled or fringed, broken, feathery or spiralling, playing a role of equal importance...Colour is used most sparingly and elegantly, on occasion for no more than accent, while the heavy blacks provide the drama as well as carry the plot. Under Louis Jaque's sensitive touch, some of these ink paintings become perfect gems.”
Jaque has received the following honours: Concours Artistiquw de la Province du Quebec (1949), Jessie Dow Prize at the Montreal Spring Show (1960) and a Canada Council grant (1964). He had a solo exhibition of his work at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art in 1966. He was one of the founding members of the Société des Artistes Professionnels du Québec (SAPQ) (1969) and the group’s first president. He painted a monumental mural for the Quebec pavilion at the Osaka Universal Exhibition in Japan in 1970 and another mural in 1972 for the Maison de Radio-Canada (CBC) on René-Lévesque Boulevard in Montreal. In 1977 the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts organized a retrospective exhibition of his work, “Louis Jaque, 25 ans de carrière”. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and his works can be found in many private and public collections, mainly in Canada, France, Italy and the United States. Jaque passed away in Montreal in 2010.
Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I: A-F", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977
