Author of several popular works on the importance of preserving Quebec’s heritage, Michel Lessard was considered as much a conscience igniter as a solid reference.
It is a monument to the enhancement of Quebec’s past which has just bowed out. “Michel Lessard was a pioneer in the protection of Quebec heritage. He opened our eyes and opened doors as well. He is the first, basically, to have offered popular works on heritage to everyone, to have made us aware, as a society, of the importance of these questions, ”explains historian and photographer Pierre Lahoud to the announcement of his death.
Michel Lessard fell in love with ancient times, in the name of the future of his family, when he was working as a young student in archeology for the federal government. Love at first sight is immediate. “Understanding the past through the work of the pioneers is fascinating. They had a cult of solid and well-made work. And he will never stop wanting to testify to it.
The vice-president of GIRAM, Gaston Cadrin, recently underlined the extent to which Michel Lessard knew how to sound the alarm in favor of the preservation of Quebec’s heritage. He pointed the finger more than once at buildings abandoned to their sad fate by the public authorities in order to alert the public. On these questions of preservation, Michel Lessard wrote regularly to the Homework to share their knowledge.
Known to a wide audience
His many illustrated books, always very neat, made him known to a wide audience. He was a specialist in Quebec antiquities in general and the beginnings of photography in particular. Such books have often given his publisher headaches with their complexity. His books, classics of the genre, are among the major works in the field in Quebec.
In 2007, he published The New Encyclopedia of Antiquities of Quebec, an ambitious project that takes a new look at his pioneering work in the field, published between 1971 and 1975. Working with Michel Lessard was not easy, these publishers will say. “The tricks deployed to succeed in persuading Michel to tackle the task of this reissue would deserve a book in itself”, comments one of the last, the publisher Pierre Bourdon.
Everyone agrees that few people have had so much success with books of this type. “His books have all been tremendous publishing successes,” comments historian Pierre Lahoud. “It’s one of a kind. He has also shown several documentaries, including a series directed by Fernand Danserau entitled A country, a taste, a way who is interested in the life of French settlers in America.
A new interest
Michel Lessard himself explained to the Homework the new interest that his work aroused at the beginning of the 1970s, in full rise of the independence movement to which he subscribed with all his soul until the end of his life: “Before the publishing success of theQuebec Antiquities Encyclopedia, Alain Stanké had asked me to repeat this success by dealing with the old house. At that time, I was teaching in a normal school in Sainte-Foy didactics and methodology in history at the same time as I was studying in Laval. It was the time when we renewed the teaching of history by advocating an inductive approach, today towards yesterday. History, time, it’s abstract and to better integrate this notion around the age of 12, we could start from today’s objects to go back to yesterday through the sequence of material culture. I had thus produced visually and in a documentary way sequences of material goods of our progress. Furniture, ceramics, glass, weapons…”
In 1974, he said, about his book on old houses: “My book is not a cookbook, but I wanted to arouse the interest of those who own an old house and give them an idea of base, explain to them how the ancients worked and how these houses must be restored. Moreover, it is important for the younger generation to understand the work of the ancients which will then become a springboard for current creators”.
Unparalleled successes
Several books will follow, always with the same success. In 1998, he dedicated an imposing one to Île d’Orléans. In the tradition of the enchantment for this island already cultivated by the archivist and historian Pierre-Georges Roy, Lessard pushes even further on the side of the mystique of origins. His book was also a remarkable publishing success, which the publisher Pierre Lespérance then welcomed, who would support his most ambitious projects for years. In this work devoted to the Île d’Orléans, Lessard intends to go back “to the sources of the Quebec people and of French America”. The tone he gives to his various books, all openly nationalist, constitutes for the reader who follows him a constant as much as an evidence.
A specialist in the origins of Quebec photography, Michel Lessard published in 2013, in collaboration with Pierre Lavoie and Patrick Altman Eternal Quebec, a “photographic walk through the soul of a country”. Through this pictorial history of the nation’s capital, he gently caresses political themes: the French country of America and its admiration through the ages, all in a kind of crescendo of pride which he never ceases to repeat. ranges.
For Patrick Altman, Lessard was able to “recreate the visual memory of our country”, emphasizing that before him little existed on this subject. During his graduate studies, Lessard had devoted his doctoral thesis to Livernois photographers from Quebec. In terms of photography, his ascendancy was such that the Kodak company used a representation of Michel Lessard in the archives to ensure its own publicity for its material. The director of the history journal Cap-aux-Diamants and himself a great collector Yves Beauregard considers that Michel Lessard, “through his research, his work, his publications, his positions on our heritage”, is a great source of inspiration.
Flamboyant
We owe Michel Lessard some twenty titles, several documentary films, radio series and a number of exhibitions devoted to the arts and popular Quebec culture. For thirty years, while pursuing numerous research projects, he taught in the art history department of UQAM.
“He was a strong and flamboyant personality. No one is going to dispute that, ”says Pierre Lahoud. “He was kind of a powerful speaker. Moreover, he did not hesitate to present himself thus. He knew people everywhere. He had an infinite number of entries in the public, which allowed him to raise awareness of an issue overnight. I admired and I still admire Michel for his talents as a communicator, for his passion for heritage, for his love of people and for the extraordinary books he has published so far. His example served as my motivation so that in my turn and in his stride I began to publish on Quebec. »
On Wednesday, April 6, the very day of his death, the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec awarded him a medal in recognition of his work. In 1996, the Gérard-Morisset prize, the highest distinction awarded by the Quebec government in terms of heritage, was awarded to him. Born in Sorel in 1942, he obtained a doctorate in the history of photography in 1986 after completing his classical studies in Lévis, a period during which he developed a passion for theatre. In the early 1980s, he was on the management committee of a Museum of Religions, based in Nicolet. He was a member of the Society of Ten, a brotherhood of historians founded in 1935.
In 2021, the Association of Architects in Private Practice of Quebec (AAPPQ) unanimously awarded him the title of honorary member for his commitment and his exceptional contribution to promoting, in particular, the architectural quality of the built environment in Quebec and, in general, the importance of architects in society.
For several years, Michel Lessard’s health had been faltering, due to diabetes which had made him almost blind, but also to cancer which was chasing him.