Page 5 — Biographical Study

Part 3. Sculptor in Sainte-Thérèse (1901-1941)

Years of Perseverance

Around 1901, family obligations forced Olindo Gratton to move back to Sainte-Thérèse. Still unmarried, he lived from that time on with an older sister, who was also single. To mark his return, some friends published an overview of Gratton's career in the Montreal press. This sensitive gesture may have led to his being awarded the contract for the Joliette Monument (Joliette, 1902). Although the statue for this monument would be executed in copper repoussé, a medium of less integrity than bronze, the contract still represented an achievement for Gratton in his ambition to find a place in the commemorative market. He would meet with several refusals before he would have another chance to work in this genre.

Some projects, such as the bust of Marguerite Bourgeoys (1914), allowed him to bring together both religious and secular commemorative sculpture — the personalities depicted were canonized at a later date. Religious statuary remained the most profitable genre for Gratton because it repeatedly demanded his mastery of repoussé on wood. This technique offered an economical, although less durable, alternative to bronze casting. Louis Jobin practiced the art of repoussé in the Quebec City area, following the lead of European sculptors such as Geoffroy de Chaume and Bartholdi. In Montreal, Philippe Laperle and Arthur Vincent worked in this technique, the latter advocating a variation of repoussé en coquille.

Gratton employed his expertise in metal-on-wood repoussé in the realization of works such as Sainte-Anne (Fall River, Massachusetts, 1905) as well as the exterior statuary of Saint-Enfant-Jésus Church (Montreal, 1907-09). The iconographic complexity of the latter work, which is based on 'The Redemption," make it an outstanding contribution to the history of Quebec religious art. Unfortunately, in 1978, most of this work was removed from the church after suffering damage caused by the elements. Still using the same technique, Gratton created the six angels that top the canopy that Vincent built for Montreal's Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral (1910-11). Vincent's intention was to create a miniature replica of Bernini's baldacchino in the Vatican Basilica. The commissioning of these angels coincided with the 21st International Eucharistic Congress (Montreal, 1910). Ange sculpted for the church in Sainte-Thérèse a year earlier, was thematically connected to the event.

Revived by that experience, Gratton participated in the Salon organized by the Club Saint-Denis (Montreal, 1911). Through this event the club intended to offer talented French-Canadian artists with an alternative to the Art Association's exhibitions. Gratton was not the star attraction, but he was one of the senior members of the fifty predominantly professional artists represented. The subjects of the works that he exhibited were exemplary of his continued attempts to break into the market for patriotic bronzes. It must be understood that the demand for wood sculpture had been continually shrinking since the mid-19th century under the onslaught of industrialization. As quicker and more economical production methods became more widespread, plaster statuary entered competition with mass-production.

Forced to adapt to these circumstances, it seems that Gratton occasionally produced statuary prototypes, probably for the T. Car1i atelier in Montreal (where Alfred Laliberté worked in 1907-08). A plaster work that Gratton produced for the Servantes de Jésus-Marie (Hull, 1913), was reproduced by a Carli shop, and another plaster work, an Ange adorateur (circa 1913-16), may also be the result of such a collaboration. The last work is noteworthy because it allows us to tentatively attribute two Anges adorateurs, previously at Saint-Pierre-Claver Church (Montreal), to Gratton. This war-time period was one of difficulty for the artist and he may have had to take on woodworking jobs to survive. In 1917, the Alumni monthly of the Petit Séminaire in Sainte-Thérèse included an article on Gratton which might have resulted in his solo exhibition at the Bibliothèque Saint-Sulpice in Montreal (1918).

This exhibition was part of a series organized by priest Olivier Maurault. From the time of the Bibliothèque's unveiling in 1915 to the end of the 1920s, all better known French- speaking Montreal artists had exhibited there. Gratton showed twelve works, a few of which were of a religious nature. The overall commemorative content of the exhibition, indicative of Gratton's ever-present ambition, pleased the daily newspapers. However the artist received a harsh commentary in Le Nigog.

Le Nigog was a Montreal-based magazine of artistic and literary criticism founded by young "Parisianistes" who were friends of Maurault. The publication became a landmark in the history of Modernity in Quebec by demanding specialized art criticism. One of the magazine's chief writers indirectly accused Gratton of amateurishness. Given that the magazine advocated the appreciation of art's plastic quality to the detriment of its subject (an element it did not, however, totally reject), it was not in a position to appreciate Gratton's essentially ideological art, which was situated within an academic (albeit rather old-fashioned) beaux-arts discourse. In spite of everything, the high-profile exhibition had a positive effect on his career, helping him to re-establish his position as the principal sculptor of wood religious statues in the Montreal area.


The Re-Launching of a Career

The 1920s were years of unexpected activity for Gratton, given his age at the time. In 1920-21, he produced four colossal Anges à la trompette in copper-on-wood repoussé for Saint-Louis-de-France Church (Montreal). Reminiscent of the angels at Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde (Marseille), these works inspired severa1 other projects, such as the Saint Joseph Memorial by Laliberté at the Oratoire du Mont-Royal (Montreal, 1923). In 1922, Gratton filled another out-of-country order, undoubtedly obtained through the net-work of "wandering" Québécois, this time for an Ecce Homo for San Diego, California. It is possible that this sculpture ended up in Mexico, thus explaining claims that works were done by the artist for this country.

Other works produced in this period include sculptures commissioned for church decoration projects in Montreal and Outremont, both late examples of the Quebec tradition of spectacular wood interiors. For Saint-Viateur Church, Gratton carved a Cène (1923) and fifty-four statuettes representing various pontiffs (1926-27). For Sainte-Catherine-d'Alexandrie, he made eight low reliefs (1926) depicting biblical scenes, eighteen medallions representing prophets (1928), and a Calvaire (1929), which was one of his better works prior to its dismantling in 1972. Finally, for Sainte-Madeleine Church, Gratton sculpted an impressive Christ en croix (1930), as well as four Anges adorateurs which we attribute to him (circa 1930-33).

Gratton was overwhelmed by the support of his religious clientele when he was offered the opportunity to realize his greatest dream: to prepare a statue that would be cast in bronze (1925). The subject of the work was the founder of the Petit Séminaire in Sainte-Thérèse, priest Charles-Joseph Ducharme. The statue's pedestal was designed by Joseph Sawyer of Montreal. This memorial, which was unveiled at the institution's centennial festivities, still stands today in front of the former college, now the Collège Lionel-Groulx. Gratton expressed his gratitude by designing four low reliefs illustrating the college's historic edifices — executed by Colomban Gratton. Around 1926-29, Gratton expressed further thanks by using the college's past and present superiors as subjects for several plaster busts and for two excellent bronze medallions intended for funerary monuments in Sainte-Thérèse.

Gratton's authority as a sculptor was acknowledged by several of the period's publications, one example being the Biographies Canadiennes-françaises (1927). Although Olivier Maurault, in his Marges d'histoire (1928-29), described Gratton as exemplary of the tradition of wood sculpture (Louis Jobin, according to Maurault, held this role in Quebec City), he recognized a certain versatility in the sculptor by mentioning him in the context of an essentially secular statuary practice. However, it is surprising that, in the hierarchy he created, he placed Gratton below his former student, Elzéar Soucy. One possible explanation for this is offered by Alfred Laliberté's memoir, Les artistes de mon temps, written around 1926-41.

Laliberté felt that Gratton was more of an artisan than an artist. Although he recognized the quality of the Ducharme Memorial, he believed that Gratton lacked good judgement, imagination and expertise, which ultimately prevented him from winning competitions. We admit that Gratton's maquettes were often bombastic, but it must be remembered that this weakness is attributable to an aesthetic heritage strongly influenced by Bourassa, and to deficiencies in his strictly local art training. Given that Laliberté had benefited from advanced training in Paris, his words reflect the 19th century sculpture debate which opposed "modellers" with "carvers," the former being the conceiver (artists) of the work, the latter being the technical executants (artisans). Modernism would later end this debate in favour of "carvers," in the belief that carving was more true to the material employed.

It had become highly desirable in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for Quebec artists to complete their education by undertaking advanced studies in Paris. For those who did not do so, it was almost impossible to break into the commemorative market for bronzes in Quebec. Gratton suffered from this handicap, lending further support to Laliberté's vision of him as an artisan; a perception that existed despite the fact that both men adhered to the period's conservative ideology.

Maurault's position with regards to Gratton was more ambiguous. Although he shared with Laliberté both an appreciation of the criteria applied to art in France, and a dissatisfaction with the weaknesses in Gratton's secular production (which led to his ranking Soucy higher than Gratton), he had to, as a cleric, show respect toward the diocese's senior statuary specialist. This explains his granting Gratton an exhibition of his work at the Bibliothèque Saint-Sulpice. We must also take into consideration the fact that at this time religious art still enjoyed a significant following. Not only Alexandre Carli, but also Hébert and Laliberté, continued to execute religious work from time to time. Ideologically, "religion" and "loyalty to one's native land" were still inseparable and both still legitimized religious and patriotic commemoration. The concept of this ideological function of art was supported by Frère Martinus' essay on aesthetics, La Connaissance pratique du beau (Montreal, 1924), which echoed Bourassa's viewpoints. In actual fact, since such a great deal of Gratton's art filled the needs of the Church (even most of his commemorative works served to honour men of the cloth), he was worthy of the respect of someone like Maurault.


Career's End

At the beginning of the 1930s, Gratton practically ceased all statuary activity due to his old age and the period's economic crisis. A few younger sculptors, such as Lauréat Vallière (1888-1973) in Saint-Romuald, continued their work, taking part in the revival of religious art that occurred during this decade. The new generation of wood sculptors interested in religious art and supportive of the movement included such artists as Médard Bourgault (1897-1967) of Saint-Jean-Port-Joli. Elzéar Soucy and Jean-Marie Gauvreau, colleagues at the École du Meuble in Montreal, and ethnologist Marius Barbeau supported this movement. Their involvement was a response to the nationalistic aspirations disseminated by priest Lionel Groulx, who was attempting to legitimize French-Canadian society through reference to a mythical French peasant past. Barbeau, in subscribing to this ideology, favoured sculptors based in the area of Quebec City (the city believed to be the quintessential example of untainted French-Canadian culture) to the detriment of artists based in cosmopolitan Montreal — Gratton included. As for Gauvreau, he advocated a local cottage industry that would be geared towards a tourist clientele. This plan, although potentially profitable, did not serve the interests of Gratton, a statuary trained in the grand style.

For the Clercs de Saint-Viateur's agricultural college in Sully, Gratton produced what is considered to be his last religious sculpture, a Saint-Isidore le laboureur in copper-on-wood repoussé. This work is a reflection of the period's "ruralist" movement, and we believe it is a self-portrait. It stands as a kind of spiritual and artistic finishing touch to his main career. Forced to change his rythm, Gratton passed his time working on busts of political figures. Nevertheless, he did produce ornamental sculpture for a few churches north of Montreal (around 1936-38), in collaboration with the E. Thibault atelier in Sainte-Thérèse. Gérard Morisset's impression of Gratton as an ornamental sculptor of the old school, as published in Coup d'œil (1941), is probably based on these minor works.

Through his loyalty to the period's nationalist ideology, which praised all things nouvelle-francienne in Quebec society, Morisset was unable to appreciate the 19th century academic influences that predominate in Gratton's statuary production. A more accurate view of him appeared in Histoire des Beaux-Arts. Notions, published by the Sœurs des Saints Noms de Jésus et de Marie (Outremont, 1937). Recalling the writings of Olivier Maurault, the book ranked Gratton, the sculptor of the statues at the Montreal Cathedral, lower than Anatole Parthenais, Dauphin, Bourassa, and Louis-Philippe and Henri Hébert, but higher than Laliberté, Suzor-Coté, Elzéar Soucy, and others of the like.

Gratton had other preoccupations at the time, as is proven by a strange symbolical-allegorical grouping that he made in plaster, purely for his own pleasure. The work, Le Spectre de la guerre (1936-39), had specific social implications and echoed Alfred Laliberté's L'Ère de la mécanique (1934): this period was, after all, one where the relevance of the artist making such a social commentary in his/her work was being rediscovered. Gratton lived his last years conscious of the passing of time. In 1938, he received interviewers from the Inventaire des œuvres d'art du Québec and, in 1939-40, his fellow citizens had a biographical account of his life published both in the press and in a historical document on Sainte-Thérèse. The sculptor occupied himself with the execution of a medallion of Pius XII (1939), as well as with a local project that would have included his bust of Sir J.-A. Chapleau as part of a memorial — the project was cancelled due to the war. On October 28, 1941, Gratton entered the Hospice Drapeau in Sainte-Thérèse, where he would die on November 14 of the same year. City Hall lowered its flag in his honour. The local and Montreal presses emphasized the religious character of his work. At the beginning of 1942, the Petit Séminaire received a bequest on Olindo Gratton's behalf, which included some thirty works in wood, plaster and clay. This gesture, along with that of the donation of the Chapleau bust to the Société historique, were expressions of Gratton's gratitude toward the society in which he had lived, and through these bequests, he made public his desire to pass on to future generations the values that he upheld throughout his life.

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