This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Paul Caron ARCA, CSGA, CPE (1874 – 1941)
A prominent early 20th century Canadian painter, illustrator, draftsman, sculptor, and printmaker, Paul Archibald Octave Caron (1) was born in Montréal, Quebec, where he lived his whole life and died.
His mediums included oil, watercolor, pastel, gouache*, ink, pencil, charcoal, chalk*, colored pencil, woodblock* print and polychrome* wood carvings. His works were also reproduced on Christmas cards, calendars and lithographic prints. His subjects included horse drawn sleighs, portraits, figures, genre*, still life, villages, harbors, farms, landscapes, snowscapes and seascapes. His style was Realism*. AskART has some excellent illustrations of his paintings.
His art education includes studies at the Art Association of Montreal under William Brymner, at the Council of Arts and Manufactures under Edmond Dyonnet and lessons under Maurice Cullen (see all in AskART). Most sources note that Caron also studied in New York and Philadelphia, but provide no additional details.
He worked as a draughtsman for J.C. Spence & Sons, Montreal [stained-glass manufacturers] (1891 – 1902); as an illustrator for La Presse (1897 – 1908) and for the Montreal Star; and as an illustrator and later director for Desbarats Advertising Agency, Montreal. Caron, with George Cuthbertson (1891 – 1969), also illustrated Blodwen Davies’ book Saguenay: The River of Deep Waters (1930); and with Clarence Gagnon (see AskART) and Alex (A.L.) McLaren (b. 1892) contributed illustrations to Geoffrey M. Le Hain’s Historic Montreal, Past and Present (c.1930).
Caron was a member of the Newspaper Artists Association (1903), The Art Club of Montreal (1912), the Canadian Society of Graphic Art* (1924 – 1936), the Canadian Society of Painters-Etchers and Engravers* (1929), the Pen & Pencil Club* of Montreal (1937), and he was an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts* (1939).
From 1904 to 1940, he exhibited almost annually with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts* and with the Art Association of Montreal (now Montreal Museum of Fine Arts). He also exhibited with the Ontario Society of Artists*; the Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto; and the Exposition Universelle*, Paris (1900).
Caron’s works are frequently traded on the Canadian auction market, they are in numerous private collections, and examples are in several Canadian museum collections.
According to the Canadian Heritage Information Network* and individual museum websites, there are Paul Caron works in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton), Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax), Glenbow Museum (Calgary, Alberta), Joliette Art Museum (Quebec), McCord Museum of Canadian History (Montreal), Musee Laurier (Victoriaville, Quebec), Nickle Arts Museum (Calgary), Quebec Museum of Fine Arts (Quebec City), Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, Ontario), and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa).
Among his awards are two Jessie Dow Prizes* for water colors (1931 and 1936).
Footnote:
(1) Three versions of his name are listed by the Canadian Heritage Information Network*... Paul Archibald Octave Caron, Paul Archibald Caron and Paul Caron; his paintings are most frequently signed Paul Caron.
Sources:
The Fine Arts in Canada (1925), by Newton MacTavish
The New Woodcut (1930), by Malcolm C. Salaman
The National Gallery of Canada: Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture, Volume III (1960), by R.H. Hubbard
Creative Canada: A Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth Century Creative and Performing Arts (1972), by Helen M. Rodney
A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (1974), by Colin S. MacDonald
Passionate Spirits: A History of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, 1880 – 1980 (1980), by Rebecca Sisler
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts: Exhibitions and Members, 1880 – 1979 (1981), by Evelyn de R. McMann
Images of the Land: Canadian Block Prints, 1919 – 1945 (1985), by Patricia Ainslie
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Spring Exhibitions 1880 – 1970 (1988), by Evelyn de R. McMann
Printmaking in Québec, 1900 – 1950 (1990), by Denis Martin
Art and Architecture in Canada (1991), by Loren R. Lerner and Mary F. Williamson
A to Z of Canadian Art: Artists & Art Terms (1997), Blake McKendry
"The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction" (2001), by Anthony R. Westbridge and Diana L. Bodnar
Biographical Index of Artists in Canada (2003), by Evelyn de Rostaing McMann
Art Gallery of Ontario (exhibition catalogue summaries online)
Canadian Heritage Information Network*
Nickle Arts Museum (Calgary)
* For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see AskART.com Glossary http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx.
Prepared and contributed by M.D. Silverbrooke
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