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Fonds - Gilberte Christin de Cardaillac | McCord Museum
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Gilberte Christin de Cardaillac

Fonds

Gilberte Christin de Cardaillac
Date [1906-1978]
Dimensions107.5 cm of textual records. - 1,053 iconographic documents
Object NumberP573
CollectionMcCord
CreditGift of Cardaillac Family
Biographical Sketch

Born in Montreal on March 16, 1906, Marie Antoinette Hélène Gilberte Christin was the daughter of Adolphe Christin and Antoinette Lafontaine. She was also the granddaughter of Eugène Lafontaine (1857-1935), Chief Justice of the Province of Quebec, Dean of the Université de Montréal Faculty of Law, and Chair of the Montreal Catholic School Board. Her only sibling, her sister Pauline Christin, married Guy Montpetit, who was the son of Édouard Montpetit, Secretary General of Université de Montréal.

In 1931, Gilberte married Galiot de Cardaillac (1889-1962), a French businessman who had moved to Canada in 1905 and was the son of Jacques de Cardaillac, Marquis de Cardaillac and owner of the Château de La Treyne in Dordogne. The couple, who lived primarily in Montreal and Knowlton (in the Eastern Townships), had only one child, Bertrand (1934-2017). In 1959, Bertrand married Louise Marquis (1934-2010), whose father owned the publisher Éditions Marquis Ltée in Montmagny.

Calling herself a professional watercolour artist and a painter of real life, Gilberte studied with Charles Maillard, a drawing professor at the École des beaux-arts in Montreal. She also took classes at Studio Sprad in Montreal and with the Sisters of Saint Anne, British watercolourist Amy Blanche Stone and Montmagny artist Louis Jasmin.

Several areas that Gilberte visited in Quebec, including the Gaspé Peninsula and the Eastern Townships, provided the setting for her work, which she usually signed with the signature "Gil. de Cardaillac." She was also inspired by her travels in Europe (particularly her trips to France and Spain). Over the course of her career, she took part in several group exhibitions, notably in Montreal, Cowansville, Knowlton, Quebec City and Montmagny. Some of her watercolours were also used to illustrate books.

Gilberte Christin de Cardaillac spent the last years of her life in Montmagny and died September 11, 1977.


Scope and Content

Focussed primarily on the personal life of Gilberte Christin de Cardaillac, this fonds documents her interests, relationships, and various private, family and social events that marked her life from adolescence to death. As a chronicle of Gilberte's status and activities in Montreal society, it provides a wealth of information about the culture of Quebec's French-speaking bourgeoisie in the 20th century.

This collection of archives also documents the artistic creation process of Gilberte Christin de Cardaillac, which included trips in Quebec and Europe that provided a backdrop for many of her works, the places and subjects that inspired her, her creative process, and the media used (primarily watercolour). It also records some exhibitions the watercolour artist participated in, awards won and media coverage of her work.

The fonds contains personal and biographical documents like identification cards, a résumé and biographical notes, legal documents like a birth certificate, a death certificate and wills, and several invoices. There are letters that Gilberte and her husband Galiot de Cardaillac exchanged with friends, family members and politicians like Jean Drapeau, in addition to sympathy cards and letters sent to Bertrand de Cardaillac following the death of his mother. In addition, there are several postcards sent primarily from France, but also from the Gaspé Peninsula and Stanbridge.

The thirteen scrapbooks created by Gilberte from 1918 to 1975 make up a substantial part of the corpus of documents. Primarily containing drawings, typed and handwritten texts, riddles, reading lists, addresses of friends and family, press clippings, collectible cards from boxes of tea, greeting cards and invitations, these scrapbooks provide a remarkably uninterrupted record of the private and social lives of their creator, as she grew from a teen to a young woman of the 1920s, and became a wife, mother and grandmother. An additional scrapbook is devoted solely to a 1955 trip to Europe. Sketchbooks, greeting cards and watercolours illustrate Gilberte's artistic work, as do an invitation to an exhibition and press clippings.

Cookbooks, various ephemera, an autograph book and over 1,000 photographs (many of which are collected in four albums) complete this collection of documents.


Classification Scheme

P573 Gilberte Christin de Cardaillac
     P573/A Personal and Family Life
     P573/B Leisure
          
P573/B1 Artistic and craft production

                     P573/B1,1 Scrapbooks
                     
P573/B1,2 Sketchbooks

                     P573/B1,3 Watercolours
                     P573/B1,4 Greeting cards
          P573/B2 Travel
          P573/B3 Collections
     P573/C Friendships
     P573/D Photographs


Notes

Source of title proper: Based on the creator of the fonds.

Physical description: The fonds includes 1,047 photographs, 3 sketchbooks, 2 watercolours and 1 sketch.

Immediate source of acquisition: The documents were given to the McCord Museum in 2001 by Bertrand de Cardaillac, in two separate donations.

Language: The documents are in French and English, but primarily in French.

General note: A coffee and tea service painted by Gilberte Christin de Cardaillac (M2001.8.1.1-38) and a board game (M2001.8.32) are preserved in the Museum's Decorative Arts collection, while thirty prints by Arthur Lemay (2001.8.31.1-30) are preserved in the Paintings, Prints and Drawings collection.

 

Last update: February 15, 2019


Information about the objects in our collection is updated to reflect new research findings. If you have any information to share regarding this object, please email reference.mccord@mccord-stewart.ca.

Information about rights and reproductions is available here.

Online Collections | McCord Museum - Montreal Social History Museum
Pauline Christin, Mildred Beaubien and Gilberte Christin, Percé, QC, 1920
Pauline Christin, Mildred Beaubien and Gilberte Christin, Percé, QC, 1920
Inconnu / Unknown
1920
M2001.8.36.31
Gilberte Christin at 13 years old, La Minerve ?, QC, 1919
Gilberte Christin at 13 years old, La Minerve ?, QC, 1919
Inconnu / Unknown
1919
M2001.8.36.60
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Chartier de Lotbinière and Harwood Families
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Conseil du District judiciaire de Beauharnois
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This project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Azrieli Foundation and Canadian Heritage.