Alfred Laliberté

(1878 - 1953)

Canadien, Member of the Royal Canadian Academy, Academy of Fine Arts of the Institut de France

Alfred Laliberté was born on May 19, 1878. Alfred Laliberté was just 20 years old when he won first prize at the provincial exhibition in Quebec with a life-size bust of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, which enabled him to enroll in sculpture from the Council of Arts and Manufactures of Montreal. In 1902, the Council financed the studies of the young artist at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. He discovers the work of Rodin, an artist who greatly influences him. During his stay, he became friends with the painter Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté. He will exhibit at the Paris Salon of 1905 where he receives a mention for his work Young Indian chasing which will be acquired a year later by the Museum of Fine Arts of Canada.

Back in Quebec, he obtained his first solo exhibition at the Conseil des arts et manufacture in 1907. The same year he became a professor at the same council until 1923. Then, he was a teacher at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal from 1923 to 1953. Laliberté was responsible for making monumental sculptures for memorials. In 1928, he produced a series of more than a hundred figures representing local legends, customs or trades of yesteryear.

He was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1919 and a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of the Institut de France in 1948. A posthumous publication appeared in 1978 at Éditions Boréal and was entitled Mes Souvenirs. Alfred Laliberté died on January 13, 1953.

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