Born in Montreal, Quebec, in 1910, the son of Joseph-Alphonse Beaulieu and Augustine Vanier, the eldest of seven children (2 girls and 5 boys). His father was a barrister who enjoyed painting as a hobby.
Paul studied a total of four years at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Mtl., at two different times 1927-30 and 1936-37. His friends at the Beaux-Arts were Jean-Paul Lemieux and Stanley Cosgrove. Finally he left art school after a skiing accident.
Next he opened a workshop for commercial art with Gonsalve Desaulniers who left the venture after a year. In spite of the economic situation of the 30's Paul supported himself for six years. A chance meeting with a cafe owner led him to become a waiter in the cafe where he was allowed to show his paintings.
When he saved enough money to travel he made his way to Paris in 1938 and joined his brother Claude who had been there since 1935. He then purchased a studio in the Montparnasse section of the city. He took further studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1938). He continued to work in his Paris studio until the Nazi invasion in 1940.
As a citizen of a country at war with Germany, he was interned at St-Denis, France, from 1940 to 1944 along with his brother Claude, Canadian artist Jean Dallaire, and 160 other Canadian citizens. He continued to paint during his internment.
After the war he went back to his old Paris studio and continued to work there until his return to Canada in 1973. His favoured mediums were etching (drypoint, aquatint), water colours and oils. He began working with graphics in 1951. Just a year later his aquatint etching of a woman was included in Paul Duval's book, Canadian Drawings and Prints (1952)
In his painting he has had many diverse styles. His 1970's landscapes, traditional in subject matter, have irregular patches throughout the foreground that give greater depth to the overall composition. In others of his paintings he verges on the non-objective. His still-lifes show some influence of Picasso. Beaulieu was retired in St-Sauveur-des-Monts, Quebec, when he died in 1990.
Exhibitions and Shows:
Over the years he has exhibited his work in New York City, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Paris and in Canada has held solo shows at Galerie I'Apogee, Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts (1968); in Montreal at the Waldorf Galleries (1954), Dominion Gallery (1957) (1959), Galerie Libre (1970); in Ottawa a retrospective at Galerie d'Art Vincent (1983) and others.
Awards and Accomplishments
Prize for painting, Que. Prov. Exhibit. (1951)
CC Grant (1960).
He illustrated J.L. Vallas book of poems 0 Visages with 30 etchings.
He is represented in the following collections:
NGC, Ottawa; Mus. Quebec, Quebec City; MMFA, Montreal; Mus. Modern Art, Paris; Bezalel Mus., Jerusalem and elsewhere, and many private collections in Canada and France.
-Colin S. Macdonald, Dictionary of Canadian Artists |
