Draughtsman and painter Louis Muhlstock ( Narajow, Galicia, 1904 – Montréal 2001), created a portrait of the Depression in gentle, intimate drawings of marginalized people. He arrived in Montreal in 1911 with a wave of Jewish immigrants, worked in his family’s fruit importing company, studied art in that city, left for Paris to study painting and years later returned to a community in the throes of economic crisis.
Canada was in the midst of the Depression when Muhlstock returned to Montreal in the 1930s. He worked productively, however, seeking subjects among the poor and the destitute, and in the hardest times, drew on kraft paper and painted on bleached sugar bags.
During this period, Muhlstock painted street scenes, abandoned slums, and some remarkable sketched portraits of people marginalized by society – the poor, the sick, and the unemployed. With these works, he became one of the leading proponents of a new form of Canadian art that moved away from a nationalistic identification with the northern landscape to focus on the human condition and contemporary life.
A founding member in 1939 of the Contemporary Arts Society, he was part of a dynamic group of artists from Montreal’s Jewish community. Later, during WWII, he sketched riveters at the Montréal shipyards, shown in an exhibition as War Workers, 1945 (above).
Over the following decades Muhlstock’s work diversified, thematically and stylistically, but remained marked by an expressive sensibility evident in both the graphic quality of his drawings and the handling of his paintings. A regular exhibitor, he was a member of the Canadian Society of Graphic Arts, the Canadian Group of Painters and the Federation of Canadian Artists. His works are represented in numerous public and private collections.
Louis Muhlstock at the National Gallery of Canada, here.
Louis Muhlstock at Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, here.
Image at top of post: In the Lane , Montreal, 1940, oil on canvas, 18 x 21 in.
This is #49 in the series 150 Artists, an ongoing series on artists you should know.
Discover more from Canadian Art Junkie
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Muhlstock’s choice of materials in the Depression are a good reminder that artists use those mediums that work for them, fits their budget, and are readily available.
Yes, and so little money results in creativity, for sure. Thanks, because that set of circumstances (fits budget, readily available, works for them) is still at play with emerging artists today.