Edmond Dyonnet
Canadian Painter
Edmond Dyonnet was born on 25 June 1859 in Crest, France, and was one of the most influential teachers and portraitists of his time. He was responsible for the creation of the École des beaux-arts de Montréal.
Born of a modest family, he was educated in 1866 in a religious school but had to quickly put an end to it because his family emigrated to Italy, to Turin. He continued his studies until 1873. This visit to Italy will certainly be decisive in his career because these are his first contacts with perspective, depth, and proportions.
At the age of 17, his father received an opportunity to immigrate to Canada in the wood industry, and Edmond Dyonnet took his first steps in Montreal.
He studied drawing very quickly at the Institut National des Beaux-Arts and decided to go back to explore Italy to feed inspiration and an important creative need.
From 1875 to 1890 he stayed in Italy and more precisely at the Albertina Academy in Turin with Gastaldi, Gilardo, and Marinelli. These influences will continually feed his need to excel in the technique of oil painting. He visited Italy and began to receive recognition from his pairs as he was selected for the first prize at the Florence school, which he won with flying colors. His works were to be exhibited at the International Exhibition in Rome in 1890 just before his return to Montreal.
Returning to Montreal, he taught at the same institute as a professor of drawing until becoming a member of the Montreal Institute of Art in 1891. This period was extremely important in his career and in the recognition of his colleagues because he became the most prestigious teacher of his companions. He teaches to a hundred students who are among the greatest names in Canadian art history such as Clarence Gagnon, Thomas Garside, A.Y Jackson, Narcisse Poirier, Albéric Bourgeois, and Marc-Aurèle Fortin.
He was a teacher called "old school" because he did not like the impressionists who were growing in parallel in Europe. He did not appreciate VanGogh’s painting, which he considered deprived of all the rules of art. He was much more sensitive to French and Dutch classics like Poussin or Gellée.
From 1893 his success was such that he was elected a fellow of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. A position he cherished until he became secretary-general until 1943: a total of 37 years.
During this period, he continued to maintain a prolific career in parallel. With Alfred Laliberté and M-A de Foy Suzor-Coté, he founded the first École des beaux-arts de Montréal. He also participated in several exhibitions and became the portraitist of the Montreal bourgeoisie. (judges, doctors, notables.).
A few years before his death, he wrote his autobiography Memoir of a Canadian Artist published by the University of Ottawa in 1968.
His works are exhibited today in several major Canadian museums, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, at the Musée national des beaux-arts in Quebec City, at the Musée de la civilization, at the Séminaire de Québec, at the Art Gallery of Ottawa and Toronto and at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in British Columbia.
He died on July 7, 1954, in Montreal, leaving neither wife nor child.
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