Edmond-Joseph Massicotte

After studying at Montréal, in 1892 Massicotte began contributing illustrations depicting the popular customs and traditions of French Canada to such periodicals as Le Monde illustré and L'Almanach du peuple. The illustrations frequently record traditional customs no longer practised in Massicotte's lifetime. Drawn primarily from his imagination and accumulated documentation (some of it supplied by his brother, archivist Édouard-Zotique), and less frequently from on-the-spot sketches, his works betray a certain lack of dynamism. They give only an impression of authenticity and often impart moralizing, religious and nostalgic sentiments. By reducing and simplifying the number of pictorial elements, he sacrificed a certain sense of lively interaction, which allowed, however, for easy recognition of the subject. His illustrations, which glorify Québec rural life, traditions and customs, have become iconographical images for Quebecers.

See also Illustration, Art.