The day after the announcement of the death of Michel Lessard, at the age of 79, the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec (MNBAQ) paid tribute to the art historian, anthropologist, pedagogue and writer and great defender of heritage Quebecois for half a century.
Posted at 11:35 a.m.
“Behind the works of a museum, there are artists, but also collectors. For historical photography in Quebec, Michel Lessard is a must. His contribution to the MNBAQ’s photo collection and more generally to the knowledge and safeguarding of Quebec’s heritage is invaluable,” said Jean Luc Murray, director general of the MNBAQ, in a press release.
Born in Sorel in 1942, the historian had obtained a doctorate in Quebec photography at Laval University before becoming a heritage professor at UQAM, a profession he practiced for nearly 40 years.
The Museum team says it is touched by this news, “because its ties with the MNBAQ go back more than 35 years when it signed, in 1987, the major exhibition devoted to the Livernois photographers.
He joined the jury members of the external acquisition committee in ancient and modern art in the early 2000s. The Museum retains his generous donation of nearly 750 remarkable photographs which entered the Museum between 2008 and 2016. enrichment of the national collection will have been welcomed by the exhibition Tribute to the great donor Michel Lessard, in April 2015.
In another press release issued Thursday, Les Éditions de l’Homme recalled that “local architecture, heritage and culture have found in him their most ardent defender”. “His works were huge popular successes, including The Quebec Antiquities Encyclopediawhose first edition, published in 1971, was printed in more than 100,000 copies.
In addition to his long career as a heritage professor at UQAM for 40 years, Michel Lessard has made his mark in numerous documentaries, books and exhibitions which have contributed to nurturing the interest of Quebecers for their popular heritage”, recalls his Publishing house.