Jules-Isaïe Benoît Livernois (October 22, 1830 – October 11, 1865) was a businessman and photographer from

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada () was a British colonization of the Americas, British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence established in 1791 and abolished in 1841. It covered the southern portion o ...

. Jules-Isaïe Benoît, who was commonly known by the surname of Livernois, is important to

Canadian history The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to North America thousands of years ago to the present day. The lands encompassing present-day Canada have been inhabited for millennia by Indigenous peoples, with di ...

for his contributions and development of the photography industry 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, ...

. Benoît's Livernois studio opened in 1854 and was operated by multiple generations of the Livernois family until its closure in 1979. His careful and highly skilled treatment of his craft preserved many aspects of cultural history in 19th century

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 ...

. Livernois studios was founded on Rue Saint-Jean in Quebec City, and at the time specialized in

daguerreotype Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photography, photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre and introduced worldwid ...

portraits and, later, cartes-des-visites. Following significant success, two more studios were opened and Livernois began also photographing French Canadian historical artifacts and monuments. Livernois died of tuberculosis in 1865 at the age of 34.

Photographer family

His wife and business partner, Élise L'Heureux, was also a prominent photographer. One of their six children, son Jules-Ernest (commonly known as Jules-Ernest Livernois, born 1851), followed in his parents' footsteps, traveling throughout Quebec taking landscape photos and outdoor group portraits. in 1874, Jules-Ernest took over the photography business his parents started twenty years prior. In 1989, Jules-Ernest was one of four 19th-century Canadian photographers to be commemorated in the Canadian Photography series, marking the 150th anniversary of the first photograph taken in Canada, with a postage stamp issued by

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (, trading as Canada Post (), is a Canadian Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the operating name of the Post Office Department of the Can ...

References

External links

''Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''''Livernois Studio'' in ''Photography in Canada, 1839-1989: An Illustrated History''
*Grandbois, Michèle.
Quebec City Art & Artists: An Illustrated History
'' 2025. Toronto: Art Canada Institute. 1830 births 1865 deaths Province of Canada people Canadian photographers Pioneers of photography People from Longueuil {{Canada-photographer-stub