Lorenzo de Nevers

Lorenzo de Nevers was born at Baie-du-Febvre (today called Saint-Elphège), in the county of Yamaska, Quebec, Canada, on June 13, 1877.

Early life

Eighth son of Abraham Boisvert and Marie Biron, he was part of the ninth immigrant generation in Quebec. At the fifth generation, the name ‘de Nevers’ was changed into ‘Boisvert’. Mr. Ernest Laforce, whose grandmother was the sister of Lorenzo de Nevers’s grandmother, explains the change as follows:

Three ‘de Nevers’ established themselves at Baie Saint-Antoine (called Baie-du-Febvre). One of them chose to establish himself at Coteau du Bois Vert. In order to be able to identify him differently from the others, people were calling him de Nevers from du Bois Vert, then Nevers known as Boisvert, then finally at the fifth generation, Boisvert only.

It is only in 1896, while the family had immigrated to Central Falls, Rhode Island, that Edmond, the elder brother, a lawyer, decided to take back the family name ‘de Nevers’ using a private law that was in force in Rhode Island. Lorenzo became then ‘de Nevers’.

Education

Lorenzo’s parents registered him in drawing courses in the Rhode Island School of Design. At about 17 years old, his brother Edmond, already studying in Paris, convinced his parents to send Lorenzo in Paris to study painting. The parents agreed to send him for one year. Lorenzo came back fifteen years later.

In Paris, under the supervision of Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens, he followed during two years the Julian Academia courses which was, at the time, one of the best schools. He was a colleague of Pablo Picasso and Borduas.

According to Rosaire Dion-Levesque, Lorenzo was admitted to Paris Fine Arts in 1902. He spent ten years under the supervision of painting masters such as Gabriel Ferrier and Léon Bonnat. He came in ninth of 400 when he competed for the Rome Grand Prize. He showed a painting depicting ‘The escape to Egypt’.

Works

At the time, it was very common, more than today, for both beginners and more advanced artists to copy masterpieces, first to improve, second to reproduce in-demand paintings. However, there was an important rule: the copy could never be the same size as the original.

In the history archives of Canadian art, published by Owl’s Head Press for the Concordia University (Volume II, no 1, summer 1975), a study presented by Mr. Laurier Lacroix from Paris-X-Nanterre University, informs us on ‘the Canadian artists copyist in Louvre (1838-1915), John Lyman (1886-1967), the couple Dubé, Cornélius Krieghoff (1815-1872), Joseph-Charles Franchère (1891).

Author Copied work Date
Benouville Saint-François d’Assise bénit la ville d’Assise 21 March 1900
Rosa Bonheur Labourage 20 September 1900
Boucher La toilette de Vénus 12 June 1900
Boucher Pastorale (Le nid) 10 avril 1902
Boucher Berger et bergère 16 September 1905
Brascassat Paysage et animaux 30 August 1905
Brawer (Adriaen) Le fumeur 19 December 1901
Chardin Le bénédicté 28 November 1902
Courbet (Gustave) Chevreuil sous bois 9 March 1900
Daubigny (Charles François) Le printemps 28 February 1901
Flandrin (Jean-Hyppolyte) Portrait de jeune fille 23 May 1900
Fromentin (Eugène) La chasse au faucon en Algérie 26 January 1900
Greuze (J.B.) La laitière 28 February 1901
Greuze (J.B.) L’accordée du village 3 October 1905
Huet (Jean-Baptiste) Chien attaquant deux oies 3 February 1900
Huignon Avoine en fleur 22 November 1899
Murillo Le jeune mendiant 5 April 1905
Ollivier (M. Barthelemy) Le thé à l’anglaise 11 October 1901
Rembrandt Portrait d’un jeune homme 14 April 1907
Reni Ecce Homo 4 August 1900
Teniers Le fumeur 30 August 1900
Teniers (David) Paysage et intérieur de ferme 1er May1900
Vicelli (Tiziano) Alphonse de Ferrare et Laurre de Dante 25 September 1900
Troyon (Constant) Bœufs se rendant au labour 5 February 1902
Vernet (Claude Joseph) Paysage, les baigneuses 29 January 1906
Le Brun Portrait de Mme Lebrun et de sa fille 24 May 1901
Le Brun ( Mme E.L. Vigée) La paix ramenant l’abondance 7 April 1901

Career

Lorenzo also had a very nice baritone voice. He played on occasion at the Odeon and the Comic Opera, playing Excamillo in Carmen and Valentin in Faust.

He left Europe for good in 1914 because of the war and established himself in Central Falls where his brothers were. Then he moved in turn to Providence, New York, Central Park South where he stayed for 17 years and then Montreal for few years. In 1952 he came back to Central Falls. He travelled often to Montreal and Saint-Hyacinthe where he had many friends of which Mr and Mrs Henry Duprat and Madam’s sister (Rollande) and the painter Irène Legendre.

According to Philippe A. Lajoie, in US, on top of the portraits the old presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Thomas E. Dewey, New York’s governor, and Aram J. Pothier, Rhode Island’s governor, he painted the portraits of :

In the west of Canada, at the Prince-Albert Diocese in Saskatchewan, he decorated the cathedral as well as Mgr Prudhomme’s private chapel.

In Montreal, he painted former prime ministers such as Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Louis Stephen Saint-Laurent; then Jacob Nichols, Cardinal Léger, Esioff Patenaude, lieutenant-governor (the painting disappeared in the fire at Bois de Coulonge on February 20, 1966), and the former Montreal mayor, Camillien Houde

Recognition

Lorenzo de Nevers also did landscape paintings. During his long career, over fifty years, he painted at least one thousand five hundred landscapes that now decorate homes in France, Belgium, Canada and United States.

On Sunday, February 25, 1962, in Pawtucket, R.I. Lorenzo de Nevers was decorated with the medal from ‘Ordre du Mérite Franco-Américain’.

In 1965 he joined his brother Wilfrid at Saint-Antoine hospice in Woonsocket. He died at Fogarty Hospital on March 29, 1967 at 89 years old.

Online references

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