Inductions

Claude T. Picard

Painter Claude Picard was inducted into the Edmundston Arts Hall of Fame on November 5, 2006. He is world-renowned for his six paintings of the Acadian deportation (Memorial Church, Grand-Pré National Historic Site, N.S.). Born in Edmundston, N.B., on February 11, 1932, he was the youngest of 10 children born to CN employee Vital Picard and Bridget Toomey. In 1946, at the age of 14, he won his first national prize for his watercolor Robin Hood. After completing his classical studies at his native Collège Saint-Louis, he spent three years in Rome and Florence, studying with the masters Mazzoli, Stultus and Beddini. He is a two-time Canada Council grant recipient and the recipient of numerous awards, including one from the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada and the prestigious Miller Brittain Award from the New Brunswick Arts Board.

The painter is internationally renowned for his four historical paintings on the arrival and settlement of the Acadians at Belle-Île-en-Mer in 1765 (Citadelle Vauban, Belle-Île-en-Mer, France), for his gigantic mural on life in Madawaska from 1785 to 1985 (Edmundston City Hall) and for his wonderful painting commemorating the founders of the Caisses populaires acadiennes in New Brunswick (Caraquet). We should also mention his painting of 21 figures on the life of Our Lord, entitled Jésus au milieu des enfants (Saint-Jacques church) and his painting on the bicentenary of the parish of Saint-Basile, entitled Se garder jeune (Club d’âge d’or, Saint-Basile, N.-B.). Claude Picard received an honorary doctorate in visual arts (honoris causa) from the Université de Moncton in 1996. In 2005, his painting Le départ vers l’exile 1755 was reproduced in a First Official Day fold, when Poste-Canada.

With extensive experience in portraiture (Hon. Gilbert Finn, Hon. Marilyn Trenholme Counsell, etc.) and landscape (in oil, charcoal and acrylic in several private collections), Claude Picard has also illustrated several publications.

In 2005, in his seventies, he completed his six-painting masterpiece Les Grandes heures du peuple acadien for the Association du Musée acadien de l’Î.-P.-É. In 2006, the Musée acadien de l’Î.-P.-É. names a room Galerie Claude Picard. In 2006, he also received the Société Louis-Napoléon-Dugal, SAANB, award for his contribution to the promotion of French and Acadian culture in Madawaska.

Claude Picard married Jeanne Soucy, of Saint-Basile, N.B., in 1963. They have two children, Brigitte and Lucie.