The Joliette Art Museum has just been enriched with some fifty important works, mainly sculptures and paintings, including nine works by Jean-Paul Riopelle and four by Paul-Émile Borduas, not to mention a few more pieces. around twenty painters such as Cornelius David Krieghoff, Jordi Bonet, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, Marc-Aurèle Fortin and Arthur Lismer. This donation of works made by the family of Dr. Richard Morisset is estimated at more than $ 3.5 million.
Collected over sixty-five years by Dr. Morisset, this impressive collection is also accompanied by a donation of $ 100,000 which will be used to ensure the conservation of the works, as well as to help disseminate the collection of the Musée d art of Joliette in general.
This is one of the largest donations of works that the Musée d’art de Joliette has received to date, which is why one of the rooms in the MAJ’s permanent exhibition was named Salle Famille D.r Richard Morisset, in recognition of this invaluable contribution. Founded in 1967, the Musée d’art de Joliette houses one of the most important art collections in Quebec, nearly 8,900 works dating from the pre-Columbian era to the present day.
“I did not acquire this collection for me, maintains the Dr Morisset in a press release. I am not saying that I did not have pleasure in constituting it, I am saying that I created it with the aim, at the end of my life, of giving it to the community. This collection, I will have been the guardian for a time, it will have served me among other things to transmit my passion for art to my four children. […]. With their agreement and their common desire to keep this one unified and to share it with others, I now give it to the next, to a museum in which I trust and which will know how to make it shine. “
PHOTO YSABELLE LATENDRESSE, PROVIDED BY THE JOLIETTE ART MUSEUM
The Musée d’art de Joliette team inaugurated the Family D roomr Richard Morisset, in the presence of family members, who has a deep attachment to the Lanaudière region.
The Morisset family also wants their gesture to inspire others, in particular in the hope that a philanthropic culture will further develop within the Francophone community of Quebec.
Coming from a family of artists, Doctor Richard Morisset is the son of Mia Riddez, who in 1955 became the first woman president of the Union des artistes, in addition to having been an actress and writer of successful soap operas.