Joseph-Charles Franchère

Joseph-Charles Franchère

Joseph-Charles Franchère, painter, illustrator, church decorator (b at Montréal 4 Mar 1866; d there 12 May 1921). After studies at the Conseil des Arts et Manufactures, at the school run by Abbé Chabert, and a period in the studio of painter-decorator F.-X.-E. Meloche, Franchère left for Paris in 1888 to complete his training. For 2 years he worked at the Colarossi studio and the Académie Julian. Returning to Montréal in 1890, he was commissioned to do 3 large paintings for the Notre-Dame du Sacré-Coeur chapel of NOTRE-DAME. He returned to Paris to paint La Vierge de l'Apocalypse (1892), La Multiplication des pains (1893) and Le Christ consolateur des affligés (1895). During this stay, he was admitted to the École des beaux-arts and began sending works to the annual exhibitions of the Art Association of Montréal and the ROYAL CANADIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS. Franchère's work was exhibited at the world fairs in Chicago (1893), Buffalo (1901) and St Louis (1904). As well as doing church murals in Québec during these years, he taught at the Conseil des Arts et Manufactures and the Monument National, and illustrated several books, including P.E. Prévost's Chansons canadiennes (1907) and Abbé Lionel GROULX'sLes Rapaillages (1916). Trained in the academic tradition, Franchère specialized in subject pictures idealizing country life, and in works inspired by symbolism.