Delphis-Adolphe Beaulieu
1849-1928
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Souvenir Maisonneuve, 1894 |
He opened his business in 1872 on St-Laurent Street in Montreal where he offered a variety of services: painting, glass gilding, sign and ornamental painting, labels and medals, decorating, frescoing, graining, paper hanging and glazing. His works are primarily religious. He produced painting of the vaulted ceiling of the Sainte-Famille church in Boucherville and light blue and apple green colors of the Saint-Sauveur church in Quebec City.
He delivered his first stained glass windows in 1894. The set of thirteen windows of the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel in Old Montreal is his most remarkable work and his most seen: six million visitors come annually to the Old Port. Marguerite Bourgeoys, the first teacher in Montreal and founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame, is behind the construction of the chapel as soon as 1655.
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Luc Morin |
Its stained glass windows have a scene easy to visualize as the design is minimal using few lead lines. On the other hand, the edges are very colorful and richly decorated with frills.
Delphis-Adolphe Beaulieu cedes his business in 1910 which becomes Beaulieu, David et Bouthillier, Décorations d'Église et Vitraux d'Art. He passed away on September 10, 1928. He is buried in Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery in Montreal.
Here is a list of places where Delphis-Adolphe Beaulieu has delivered stained glass windows:
- The church St-Basile, Saint-Basile-le-Grand
- The church Ste-Brigide-de-Kildare, Montreal
- The chapel Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, Montreal
- The church St-Enfant-Jésus du Mile-End, Montreal
- The cathedral St-Jérôme, Saint-Jerome
- The church Ste-Rose-de-Lima, Laval
- The sanctuary of St-Sacrement, Montreal
- The church St-Joseph, Maskinongé
- The building of La Banque du Peuple, Montreal
Where are the stained glass windows of Baie-du-Febvre ?
In 1901, Delphis-Adolphe Beaulieu provided a dozen of stained glass windows to decorate the church of Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue in Baie-du-Febvre. The ensemble illustrated scenes from the life of St. Anthony of Padua, the patron of lost things. This included St. Anthony preaching to the Fish, the Child Jesus and St. Anthony, or the Conversion of Ezzelino da Romano. In Histoire de la Baie-Saint-Antoine (Imprimerie La Patrie), 1911, the priest Joseph-Elzéar Bellemare underlines the technical achievement of these windows. About the background color, he mentions that the sea blue "subdues in the edifice a mysterious glow, communicating an indescribable cachet".
The construction of this church, the fifth since the village was founded in 1683, was the theatre of a series of misfortunes: the savings of the parish accumulated for the construction of the church vanished after the bankruptcy of the Ville-Marie Bank; the ship carrying church's lumber sank on Lake Saint-Pierre; the two contractors died during the work and finally, when the construction of the outside was barely completed, the church was struck by lightning. It was completely destroyed by the fire. The installation of the stained glass windows was postponed after the reconstruction in 1904.
But even worse, a slow agony would affect the new church. The building was built on an unstable ground and the steeples sank little by little. An almost three feet drop appeared between the front and the rear of the steeples. The building had become too dangerous, ininsurable and it was demolished in 1964. The sixth church, of contemporary design, is the one that still exists today.
Regarding the stained glass windows, they could not be traced in any other nearby parish. There is no indication of their withdrawal. Should we sadly find that they were destroyed during the demolition ?