Thérèse Renaud (July 3, 1927 – December 12, 2005) was a Canadian actress and writer associated with Les Automatistes. She was also known as Thérèse Leduc. She was born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. Renaud went to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1946 to study theatre. On her return to Montreal, she worked as a comedian and singer, appearing on radio and television. She returned to Paris in 1959 to work on her literary work. While there, she conducted interviews with people from the arts for Radio Canada. She worked as a professional

astrologer Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Dif ...

for several years. In 1946, she published ''Les Sables du rêve'', considered to be the first Automatist work. Renaud was a signatory to the

Refus Global Le Refus global ( en, Total Refusal, link=yes) was an anti-establishment and anti-religious manifesto released on August 9, 1948, in Montreal by a group of sixteen young Québécois artists and intellectuals that included Paul-Émile Borduas, Jea ...

in 1948. Renaud died in Paris at the age of 78.

Personal life

She married the artist

Fernand Leduc Fernand Leduc (4 July 1916 – 28 January 2014) was a Canadian abstract expressionist painter and a major figure in the Quebec contemporary art scene in the 1940s and 1950s. During his 50-year career, Leduc participated in many expositions in Ca ...

. Renaud came from a talent family. The choreographer

Jeanne Renaud Jeanne Renaud (August 27, 1928 – September 15, 2022) was a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and artistic director, considered to be one of the founders of modern dance in Quebec. Born in Montreal, Renaud studied music at the École de musique V ...

and the artist Louise Renaud were her sisters. As well, her cousin, Estelle Mauffette, was a Quebec actress.

Works

* ''Les Sables du rêve'', poetry (1946) * ''Une mémoire déchirée'', memoir (1978) * ''Plaisirs immobiles'', prose and poetry (1981) * ''Subterfuge et sortilège'', prose (1988) * ''Le choc d'un murmure'', novel (1988) * ''Jardins d'éclats'', poetry (1990) * ''N'être'', poetry (1998) * ''Un passé recomposé. Deux automatistes à Paris. Témoignages 1946-1953'', memoir (2004)

References

1927 births 2005 deaths Canadian women poets Canadian women novelists 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian novelists Writers from Montreal Canadian poets in French Canadian novelists in French Canadian astrologers 20th-century astrologers 20th-century Canadian women writers Canadian women memoirists 20th-century Canadian memoirists {{Quebec-writer-stub