Fonds
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
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.
This project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Azrieli Foundation and Canadian Heritage.