Henri Masson

Henri Masson was born on 10 January 1907 in Spy, a small village near Namur in Belgium. He started his studies at the Athénée Royale of Brussels when he was 13, and from then on, his spare time was devoted to drawing and painting. After his father died in 1921, Masson and his mother immigrated to Canada, settling in Ottawa. He started working in an engraving studio in Ottawa in 1923. Masson also took courses at the Ottawa Art Association and the Ottawa Art Club. He earned his living as an engraver until 1945, ensuring the security of his family, which he explained, was vital considering that he had three children and was not by nature a bohemian. This was also a period when few artists were able to make a living by their art alone. Masson, therefore, worked at the engraving studio during the day and painted in the evenings and on weekends. Masson first exhibited in 1933, a group exhibition to which he submitted a selection of watercolors, pastels and drawings. His first showing of oil paintings was in 1936 in an exhibition at the Ontario Society of Artists in Toronto. In 1937, on the birth of his first son, Carl, Masson exhibited at the Caveau. His first solo exhibition was held at the Picture Loan Society in Toronto in 1938, followed by another solo exhibition in 1939 at the Caveau. He also exhibited with the Canadian Group of Painters as well as exhibiting in New York and Montreal. Masson started exhibiting at the Galerie L’Art Français in 1941. That same year, he became a member of the Canadian Group of Painters and joined the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolor and the Société des Arts Graphiques. In 1944, with H.O. McCurry, A.Y. Jackson and Arthur Lismer, Masson adjudicated an exhibition of war art held at the National Gallery of Canada. He also exhibited his paintings at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven and the Fine Arts Museum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Still, in 1944, The National Film Board discussed Masson and his art in a documentary film. He was elected president of the Ottawa branch of the Federation of Canadian Artists in 1945. Masson taught at Queen’s University Summer School in Kingston from 1948–52. He returned to Europe in 1952 for the first time, visiting his hometown in Belgium. In the summer of 1954, Masson taught at the Banff School of Fine Arts and in 1955 he was granted an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Assumption College in Windsor, Ontario. That same year, he taught at the Kingsmere Summer Festival along with A.Y. Jackson. His painting, Logs on the Gatineau River, was reproduced for the cover of the Canadian Geographical Journal. Masson returned to Europe in 1957, this time traveling in Italy, France and Belgium. From 1960–63, he taught summer courses at the Doon School of Fine Arts. Masson illustrated an article on the quiet revolution in Quebec, Quebec in Revolt, which was published in Fortune Magazine. In 1973, Masson traveled to the Soviet Union. In 1975, he participated in an hour-long radio interview at Radio-Canada. He traveled to the Orient in 1976: Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong. In 1979 the municipality of Sainte-Catherine d'Alexandrie honored Masson, naming a street after him. In 1980, Masson took part in Radio-Canada’s television program “Rencontres,” and as part of the L’Atelier series, he was also interviewed by Naim Kattan of Radio-Canada FM. Masson was first and foremost a landscape artist. He paints from nature; trees, villages, the sea, lighthouses and small boats. Although Masson painted European landscapes, he was essentially a Canadian who painted landscapes depicting the Ottawa region, Gatineau and especially the province of Quebec: Gaspé, Charlevoix (notably Baie St. Paul), the Eastern Townships and the Laurentians In the 1940s, critics extolled Masson’s realism, the intensity of his color and his gift for satire. The critic P. Gélinas, writing in Le Jour, congratulated Masson for not following the current fashion in art, developing his vision rather than choosing a middle ground between cubism and surrealism. He also noted that Masson had a sense of luminosity, an understanding of the drama of autumn, the tragedy of the wind and the indefinable mystery of light. In the eyes of the critics, Masson was one of the best watercolorists in the country. By 1943, Masson was at the height of his talent. He drew the attention of his viewers through the color and movement in his work. He used bold colors brilliantly and with obvious pleasure. Nevertheless, his art is subtle. The uniqueness of his composition emphasizes the artist's individuality to the point that critics are inevitably taken by the overall excellence of his paintings. Masson's works are found in practically every major Canadian Art Museum including Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Saskatoon and Victoria. His work is also found in many of the major Canadian Corporate and University Art Collections.