About
The Musée d’art de Joliette, which began as an ambitious idea from Father Wilfrid Corbeil, CSV, has become the largest regional art museum in Québec. For over sixty years, the MAJ has enhanced its permanent collection with over 8,300 artworks and objects. As it continues to expand, the MAJ collection is now structured around the following four key focus areas: contemporary art, historical art, material culture, and archives. With artworks that cover a vast range of artistic disciplines, from painting to sculpture to new media, the MAJ collection is considered a national treasure, among other reasons, for its collection of Québec art and ancient European art.
Key focus areas —
In 1943, the MAJ collection was in its infancy when the Joliette Seminary, under the leadership of the Clercs de Saint-Viateur de Joliette, acquired 8 works by Québec artists. Since then, the collection, much like the MAJ, has continuously grown and evolved. Recently, we completely revised the collection’s focus areas in order to better reflect the times we live in and the current state of the collection’s holdings. This revision was undertaken with respect for the history of its constitution, while forging a new vision for its development as carried forward by the institution. While the majority of the collection’s objects are from Québec, the new focus areas will no longer include geographical references, in order to encompass all of its holdings as a whole.
Contemporary art – 1950 to today
Works made from 1950 onward, regardless of origin or type, now constitute a very important and active part of the collection. The Musée has always been interested in acquiring works that demonstrate a coherent, innovative process that is relevant to the modern artistic landscape. The contemporary art collection is comprised of, among other mediums, paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, installations, videos, and performances by Québec, Canadian, and international artists since 1950. Over 50% of the MAJ collection is composed of contemporary art, primarily by Québec artists.
This interest in collecting and helping people learn about recently produced artworks can be traced back to Father Corbeil’s original vision from 1931, when he opened a painting and drawing studio at the Joliette Seminary, the precursor of the MAJ we know today. Each year, Father Corbeil would organize an exhibition of student works. In 1942, he began inviting artists from Montréal to exhibit in the Seminary’s parlour. That same year, he organized the exhibition Exposition des maîtres de la peinture moderne, with works by six Québec artists including Paul-Émile Borduas, who showed one of his first pre-Automatiste paintings, Green Abstraction (1941). This historical exhibition set the tone for the years to come. The MAJ still nurtures a passion to share and support recent work and emerging practices. And in keeping with Father Corbeil’s objectives, the MAJ still pays particular attention to acquiring works by artists who have shown in its galleries, and who have strong ties to the Launaudière region.
The collection grew thanks to works donated by exhibiting artists, individuals, and by members of the acquisition committee, which was originally composed of Dr. Max Stern; Father Corbeil, CVS; and Father Étienne Marion, CVS. Several decades later, in 1995, the MAJ acquired more than 400 modern and contemporary works by Canadian artists from Maurice Forget. While this donation certainly augmented the collection, it also broadened the provenance of its works with artists from outside of Québec. Today, this portion of the collection includes a great number of artists from both here and elsewhere who, for many, have contributed to the evolution of art. These include Guido Molinari, Marcelle Ferron, Anne Kahane, and more recent artists such as Angela Grauerholz, Monique Régimbald-Zeiber, Carl Beam, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Ed Pien, David Altmejd, Edward Burtinsky, and many others.
Historical art – before 1950
The MAJ’s collection of historical art is its second key focus area. It includes, among others, paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and photographs, as well as decorative art from the 12th century to the 1950s. Many examples of Québec art of exceptional artistic and historical value can be found there. While the vast majority of these pieces are local, it also contains works from further afield in Canada and Europe.
This part of the collection features portraits, still lifes, allegorical sculptures, genre scenes, and landscapes painted by many illustrious 19th and 20th century artists. Atmospheric studies by Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Côté, and Ozias Leduc; schematic compositions by Edwin Headly Holgate and James Edward H. MacDonald; and expressionistic pieces by Emily Carr and Jacques de Tonnancour.
In 1950, while visiting France and Italy, Father Corbeil, CSV, and Abbot François Lanoue, acquired the first European works for the Joliette Seminary collection, the MAJ’s precursor. Their findings include a 12th century marble capital from the Pyrenees, an oil on wood panel from the Renaissance depicting the Virgin Mary nursing her infant son, and a Madonna and Child from the 17th century. In 1961, the canon Wilfrid Anthony Tisdall entrusted his personal collection under the care of Father Corbeil. Of the 500 works of European art now part of the Musée’s collection, a rare geminate German wood sculpture, high quality paintings including an octagonal portrait of The Precursor, and a bronze by August Rodin titled Head of Saint John the Baptist on a Platter (no. 2). Over the years, private donations enriched the collection with copies of the great masters, such as Saint Mary-Magdalen, after Correggio; the Seven Sacraments, after Crespi; and an Adoration of the Magi, after Rubens. Today, French primitive panels and medieval sculptures now complement the Musée’s vast repertoire of European iconographic religious works from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.
Material culture
Material culture, which encompasses any kind of human-made object with a social or cultural purpose, gives great importance to material objects and their relationship to people. This focus area brings together many artefacts of various provenances and techniques that were an integral part of the Joliette Seminary’s original collection and were used by the Clercs de Saint-Viateur as teaching aids for different subjects, including theology and the arts. These objects are the bridge between the current MAJ and the Joliette Seminary’s natural history museum, run by the religious community between 1870 and 1957.
This portion of the collection contains sacred objects, such as liturgical vestments and accessories of various religious allegiances. It also contains manuals, albums with illustrations and photographs of important European monuments and artefacts, indicators of the material traces of ancient cultures from the Mediterranean, the Middle-East, and pre-Columbian America.
At the Joliette Seminary’s natural history museum, the Clercs de Saint-Viateur exhibited a vast collection of artefacts, specimens, and objects. When the Seminary founded its art museum in 1943, the art collection and the natural history museum were separate entities—until 1957, when a fire destroyed a wing of the Seminary. The museum was dismantled and only a few pieces of interest, such as clay figurines from ancient Persia, Etruscan terra cotta objects, a marble Roman statuette, and utilitarian objects were added to the art collection. Afterwards, antique pieces from Europe and Asia were donated by Serge Joyal, the canon Tisdell, and Father Paul Quesnel, CSV. This part of the collection reveals the original areas of interest of the MAJ collection, but it is no longer being developed.
Archives
The MAJ holds archival fonds derived from individuals who played key roles in the Musée’s establishment and the development of its art collection, notably its founder, Father Corbeil, CSV, who was also an artist. Among other things, it contains the MAJ’s institutional documents, such as plans, exhibition posters, and photographs. The MAJ aims to make its digitized institutional archives publicly accessible through this portal. Our goal is to set this special project in motion for the benefit of those who are interested in researching our institution and its collection.