Wigwomadensis All in Colour for the Barreau de Richelieu

At the request of the Barreau de Richelieu, it was my pleasure to create this painting, incorporating their new logo, for the first edition of the Prix Reconnaissance, awarded on May 5, 2023 to a lawyer who particularly distinguished herself in her socio-judicial approach to health law, at the annual general meeting of the Barreau de Richelieu held at the hôtel de la Rive à Sorel.

This painting represents a viewpoint from Beloeil toward the mountain of Saint-Hilaire and its church, where one finds one of the most important decorative works among the some thirty churches decorated by Ozias Leduc, one of the greatest Québécois painters, born on October 18, 1864 and died in Saint-Hyacinthe at the age of 90 on June 16, 1955.

Leduc, nicknamed le Sage de Saint-Hilaire, was a painter of the religious symbolist movement and was the master of the artist Paul-Émile Borduas.

He was often inspired by the Saint-Hilaire region in his works, including the viewpoint that I also used to create the present painting, notably in his painting titled: La maison du passeur, made around 1938-1939, which is part of a private collection of the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal.

In Champlain’s time, at the beginning of the 1600s, the Algonquins called this mountain: Wigwomadensis, an Abenaki word meaning a cone- or dome-shaped dwelling resembling a First Nations dwelling, that is, a wigwam because of its elongated shape, like a longhouse.

This very inspiring mountain was later called Mont Rouville, then Mont Beloeil, and finally le Mont Saint-Hilaire, where one finds the réserve naturelle Gault de l’Université McGill.

I was also inspired by this viewpoint to create my paintings # 0069 : The Mystical Flight of Suzanne

and # 0158 : Long Ago at Wigwomadensis, classified in my Rural Landscapes theme.

Painting signed at left.