Jean-Baptiste Côté (30 May 1832 – 9 April 1907) was a Canadian architect, wood-carver, glider, wood engraver, caricaturist, publisher, and printer. His reputation rests on his wood engravings, and on his being one of Canada's earliest cartoonists.

Life and career

Jean-Baptiste Côté was born to Jean-Baptiste Côté and Hélène Grenier in the Saint-Roch parish in the

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Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...

. The elder Côté worked as a carpenter in the shipbuilding yards near the Rivière Saint-Charles. Côté became apprenticed as an architect to

François-Xavier Berlinguet François-Xavier Berlinguet (4 December 1830 – 3 August 1916) was a Canadian wood-carver, engineer, and architect. François-Xavier Berlinguet had studied wood-carving and its architectural applications with his father while growing up in t ...

around 1850. Côté lacked a strong interest in architecture and turned to wood-carving, going into business for himself decorating ships—shipbuilding at the time employed almost half the population of the city. The Saint-Roch fire of October 1866 destroyed Côté's workshop, and another fire on 24 May 1870 destroyed his home on Rue de la Couronne. Côté contributed about 60 wood-engraved cartoons to the satirical newspaper ''La Scie'' in 1864–65, and thereafter had political caricatures published in a variety of other such periodicals. Targets included

Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation () was the process by which three British North American provinces—the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—were united into one federation, called the Name of Canada#Adoption of Dominion, Dominion of Ca ...

, politicians such as

George-Étienne Cartier Sir George-Étienne Cartier, 1st Baronet, (pronounced ; September 6, 1814May 20, 1873) was a Canadians, Canadian statesman and Fathers of Confederation, Father of Confederation. The English spelling of the name—George, instead of Georges, th ...

and

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, and journalists such as

François Évanturel François Évanturel (October 22, 1821 – March 12, 1891) was a Quebec lawyer, journalist and political figure. He was born in Quebec City in 1821, the son of a soldier in Napoleon's army who had joined the British Army after having been take ...

and

Hector Berthelot Hector Berthelot (March 4, 1842 – September 15, 1895) was a Canadian lawyer, journalist, columnist, satirist, caricaturist, photographer and publisher who was born in Trois-Rivières. He was not married and died in Montreal. He is most wel ...

. Côté and Adolphe Guérard left ''La Scie'' in 1865 to found the printing company A. Guérard et Compagnie and published ''La Scie illustrée'' with the intention of bringing a halt to Confederation. Côté contributed hundreds of woodcuts: mainly caricatures, as well as some portraits and

rebus A rebus ( ) is a puzzle device that combines the use of illustrated pictures with individual letters to depict words or phrases. For example: the word "been" might be depicted by a rebus showing an illustrated bumblebee next to a plus sign (+ ...

es. In May 1866 ''La Scie illustrée'' was replaced by the more serious weekly ''L’Électeur'', then the unillustrated ''L'Écho du peuple'' (June 1867 – April 1868), and then the humorous ''Le Charivari canadien'' (June–November 1868). Several cartoons in ''Le Charivari canadien'' were signed "Nemo", which may have been a pseudonym of Côté's; if they were, they likely would have been his last published caricatures. Steel-hulled ship construction came to take over from those of wood in the 1870s, and Côté turned his skills elsewhere: furniture, signs,

cigar store Indian The cigar store Indian or wooden Indian is an advertisement figure, in the likeness of a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native American, used to represent tobacconists. The figures are often three-dimensional wooden sculptures measuring fr ...

s, religious carvings, hearses, tombstones, and others. He began attracting attention for his statuary, and in 1877 won a special prize at the provincial exhibition for his wooden statues. He won a commission to carve two floats for the procession on 24 June at the French Canadian national convention of 1880. The secretary general Honoré-Julien-Jean-Baptiste Chouinard remarked called Côté's floats "by common consent, the most imposing and the most outstanding, in the size of its figures and the elegance of its every detail". The floats established his reputation, and Côté went on to fulfill a number of such commissions, particularly of religious carvings. Côté contracted a spinal condition in 1903 and had to give up his work. He died in poverty at his home on 9 April 1907 in Quebec City and left everything he owned to his three daughters who lived with him. He was buried at the Saint-Charles cemetery on 11 April and had a large funeral.

Works

Côté worked in a variety of media, including architecture, wood engraving, caricature, publishing, and printing. He is best remembered for his hand-painted wood sculptures, especially ones of animals. Côté received formal training, in contrast to many of his contemporary folk artists in Quebec. Much of his work is unsigned.

Personal life

Côté's first marriage was on 8 September 1856 to Marie Auger, daughter of Marie Roussin and Jacques Auger, a ship's carpenter and foreman. The couple had ten children. On 21 January 1884 Côté remarried to Adélaïde Bédard, with whom he had no children.

References

Works cited

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External links