Stanley Morel Cosgrove

The painter, draughtsman, and muralist Stanley Cosgrove was born in Saint-Henri in 1911. At the age of 17, he was admitted to the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, and later to the Art Association of Montreal. After his studies he spent time painting landscapes in the Gaspé Peninsula and the Charlevoix region thanks to the support of a patron; it was there that he met Jean Paul Lemieux. In 1939, Cosgrove received a government grant to continue studying art in France. But when the war broke out, he decided to travel to Mexico instead, where he enrolled in the Academia de San Carlos and worked as an apprentice for the muralist José Clemente Orozco, who had a tremendous influence on him. Upon his return to Québec in 1943, he accepted a part-time teaching position at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal. It was ten years before he was able to return to France to see the work of Georges Braque and Georges Rouault. Cosgrove retired from teaching in 1958 to pursue his art practice full-time. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and his work is included in many public and private collections. He died in 2002 after a 70-year-long career.