The duty goes beyond the framework of the National Assembly in this series which revisits the highlights of our political history. Today, The apotheosis of Christopher Columbus by Napoleon Bourassa.
In 1905, Napoléon Bourassa unrolled a gigantic cardboard box 7.5 meters long and 4 meters high in his studio on rue Sainte-Julie, in Montreal. Shreds stand out as daylight once again shines on the work produced 38 years earlier for the Universal Exhibition in Paris. The moved old man rediscovers his Apotheosis of Christopher Columbus. “It was his life’s dream,” explains art historian Mario Béland.
The father of Henri Bourassa, who would found The duty, is haunted by this work of “youth” which has never found a buyer, whether in the Parliament of Ottawa at the end of the 1860s or in that of Quebec at the beginning of the 1880s. lose, the stubborn artist climbs up his scaffolding to transpose the drawing from his damaged “Expo 1867” cardboard onto a canvas of the same size. “He is getting back to it as he approaches his 80th birthday as if he wanted to leave a trace of this colossal composition,” says Béland.
Napoleon Bourassa took the opportunity to clean up some of the sixty heroes of the original work, of which only about twenty fragments remain today. Caught up by the weight of the years, the painter will however have to come back down to earth in 1912 before having finished his artistic testament. “That the work is unfinished is candy for art historians, observes Béland, because we see his entire creative process! »
The last judgement
The apotheosis is rather disconcerting, with its neoclassical-inspired codes and aesthetics. “It’s not a painting that seeks emotions like a winter landscape by Suzor-Coté, illustrates Mario Béland. We are completely elsewhere. »
The canvas depicts the coronation of Christopher Columbus (1) by the allegorical figure of Glory. The Genoese navigator triumphs at the foot of the temple of immortality while a genius snatches the usurped laurels from the head of his colleague Amerigo Vespucci (2), whose first name was given to the American continent at the beginning of the XVIe century.
The hour of the last judgment has sounded for the “enemies” of Columbus, who are driven from their cloud with trumpet blasts by Fame and Vengeance (3)! This segment of the painting is particularly animated if we compare it to the “orchestra pit” located at the bottom of the canvas. “Allegorical figures are the strongest aesthetically,” observes Béland.
Despite their exploits, the “great men” of Western history selected by Napoleon Bourassa had to line up behind Columbus to be enthroned. Starting with the prophet Moses (4), who is no doubt looking for something interesting to tell the scientists Galileo and Copernicus (5) posted in front of him.
Queen Isabella of Castile (6) is the only woman worthy of entering the temple of immortality for having financed the voyage of Columbus in 1492. “She was added to the canvas, specifies Mario Béland, she was not there in the big box of 1867.”
The American Orchestra
Patience is required for the heroes of colonial America led by French explorers Jacques Cartier (7) and Samuel de Champlain (8). Both men are looking west, like English Quaker William Penn (9), the founder of Pennsylvania.
Unsurprisingly, the presence of the first peoples of the continent is reduced to two anonymous Aboriginal people (10) blessed by Las Casas, the first bishop of Mexico, and a third man wearing a feather headdress to whom Mgr de Laval (11) presents the “Holy Scriptures”.
The monks are followed by a row of generals, the Montcalms (12), Wolfe (13), Lévis (14) and Washington (15), who puts his hand on the shoulder of his protege, La Fayette (16), at who Bourassa entrusted with the heavy task of raising the sword of France in America, 15 years after the British conquest of Canada.
Space was running out for the painter, who nevertheless insisted on inserting a trio of inventors following the soldiers, whose creations served as a pass to immortality. Benjamin Franklin (17) grabs his lightning rod before our eyes, while Samuel Morse (18) presents the electric telegraph for which he developed the alphabet bearing his name. Robert Fulton (19) meanwhile struts around with a model of his steamboat, the Clermontlaunched in 1807 on the Hudson River to connect New York to Albany.
This is a chart that was completely retrograde at that time. The art was rendered elsewhere.
Bourassa could have taken advantage of the updating of its 1867 composition to add technologies that appeared at the turn of the century, such as the automobile or the airplane. However, he prefers to keep a certain distance with the present. “The birth of Canadian Confederation was the most recent event he could go to,” says Mario Béland.
The line of immortals ends precisely with a succession of pairs illustrating the linguistic duality of Canada. The first features the painter’s father-in-law, Louis-Joseph Papineau (20), posing alongside William Lyon Mackenzie (21). The two leaders of the patriot uprising of 1837 are followed by the leaders of the first Canadian responsible government formed in 1848, namely Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine (22).
The last duo brings together the Fathers of the “Confederation” of 1867, George-Étienne Cartier (23) and John A. Macdonald (24), who brandishes the unilingual English text of the Constitution. History does not say whether Canada’s first prime minister was able to reach the Temple of Immortality before his statue was toppled in Dominion Square, Montreal, in 2020.
Far from the tastes of the day
The apotheosis went out of fashion in the early 1910s when Bourassa offered it to the National Gallery of Canada for the equivalent of $250,000 in today’s dollars. “It’s a table that was completely retrograde at that time, explains Mario Béland. The art was rendered elsewhere. »
Due to a lack of interest, the canvas would not leave the studio on rue Sainte-Julie during the lifetime of the artist, who died in 1916 at the age of 88. Posthumous tributes will not be enough to find a buyer for this extraordinary work intended for a major building. “ The apotheosis is colossal, recalls Béland, it is one of the greatest paintings of Canadian art that has ever been produced. »
The estate of Napoleon Bourassa will have to resolve to give it in 1928 to what will become the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec. It will however be necessary to wait until 1983 so that The apotheosis be exhibited within its walls. “The canvas hadn’t been seen since 1917. Needless to say, it was quite a shock! concludes Béland.