Rose-Aimée Bélanger

Rose-Aimée Bélanger created wonderful figures, full of life and humour in sandstone and bronze. Her subjects came from the people around her: her family, friends, and local characters she met over her lifetime. They are shown in familiar attitudes, in repose and at work. Women holding bouquets, dreaming, relaxing, reading, picking berries or mushrooms, and coddling their children; men at work, or taking a lunch break. She sculpted people, with realism and candor, people of her own milieu. All her figures seem to be alive and not posed. They are tender and understanding, exuding an aura of calm and serenity. Shapes have become inflated, giving her figures gracious, yet heavy forms. Almost a paradox, she exploits this with much style and success. Her extraordinary aesthetics give the impression of lightness.

Shortly after graduating from Ecole Des Beaux-Arts in Montreal, Rose-Aimée put her career on hold to devote her time to being a wife and mother. Some thirty years later, she resumed her sculpting, patiently and gradually, with great determination. To begin again in your late fifties, after a lapse of many years is rare. However, she did so with panache.

After reaching her centennial birthday in July of 2023, Rose-Aimee sadly passed away in November of the same year. Through her sculpture she showed us her incredible ability to make us stop and enjoy the here and now. With each bronze figure she seemed to be sharing a memory, an idea or simply a moment in time. She was truly a credit to the world of Canadian sculpture and her work will be enjoyed for decades yet to come.

Nationality is Canadian.

July 4th 1923 - Nov12th 2023