Marie-Agnès Lefort (January 5, 1891 – February 9, 1973) was a Canadian artist, educator and gallery owner living in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. She was born in Saint-Rémi and was educated by the

Ursulines The Ursulines, also known as the Order of Saint Ursula (post-nominals: OSU), is an enclosed religious order of women that in 1572 branched off from the Angelines, also known as the Company of Saint Ursula. The Ursulines trace their origins to th ...

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, ; ) is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...

. She went on to study art at the Monument-National in

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with , Charles Gill and Edmond Dyonnet; in 1917, she won the medal awarded annually for drawing. She also undertook private studies in portrait painting with Saint-Charles and "plein air" painting with J.Y. Johnstone. In 1923, Lefort began to exhibit with the Art Association of Montreal and the

Royal Canadian Academy The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...

. In 1935, she had a solo exhibition at Eaton's Art Gallery. She attended the 1941 Conference of Canadian Artists in

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, now known as the "Kingston Conference". She was also a founding member of the Federation of Canadian Artists. Her work was included in the exhibition "Pintura Canadense Contemporanea" in

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in 1944. Lefort also exhibited at the Galerie l'Art Français in Montreal. In 1950, she retired from painting and opened the Agnès Lefort Gallery, later the Galerie Godard Lefort. It was considered one of the most important

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

galleries in Montreal. She taught art classes in her studio and at Miss Edgar's and Miss Cramp's School in

Westmount Westmount () is a city on the Island of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is an enclave of the city of Montreal, with a population of 19,658 as of the 2021 Canadian census. Westmount is home to schools, an arena, a pool, a public li ...

. She also gave

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talks on art history. Lefort died in Montreal at the age of 82. Her work is included in the collections of the

Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (), abbreviated as MNBAQ, is an art museum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The museum is located in National Battlefields Park and is a complex of four buildings. Three of them were purpose-built for ...

and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lefort, Agnes 1891 births 1973 deaths Canadian women artists