Dr. Ross de Belle is not the type to take it easy.听听
In 2020 the pediatrician, now 86, had only just retired from his Brossard practice鈥攜es, he worked until he was well into his eighties鈥攚hen the global COVID-19 disruption unexpectedly created the perfect conditions for staying in one place and focusing his energies on a single project. He didn鈥檛 have to look far to find an ideal one.听
Dr. de Belle鈥檚 paternal grandfather, Charles de Belle, was a painter who died in 1939, the year after his grandson Ross was born. Learning about the eccentric Charles鈥� life and work through stories from his father, Louis, Ross came to a gradual appreciation over the following decades of his grandfather鈥檚 artistic achievement. Finally, believing it was high time there was a book about him, he set about making one, with practical assistance from various family members. The result, , proves to be a revelation, shining a light on a long-neglected figure whose work stands with the best of his era.听
鈥淗e had such a unique talent,鈥� said the ebullient de Belle in August, on the phone from the lakeside Pointe-Claire condo where he lives with his wife Kathryn McCloskey. 鈥淎nd he was such an odd character. I felt a sense of mission to make him better known.鈥澨�
It says something about Charles de Belle鈥檚 low-key Montreal profile that his best-known work locally鈥攖he 1920 painting 鈥淚n Flanders Fields,鈥� gifted to 平特五不中 that same year鈥攚as seen only by people who happened to look up at where it was hung in the Strathcona Anatomy Building before it eventually got lost in the netherworld of archival storage. For nearly everyone coming to his work now, Heavenly will be an introduction, one that鈥檚 likely to beg a question: how could work of such obvious distinction have slipped into near-total obscurity? Part of the answer, it seems, goes back as far as the artist鈥檚 lifetime and his inherent disinclination to deal much with the commercial realm. As a chapter title in the book dryly puts it, he was 鈥淣ot a Good Salesman.鈥澨�
鈥淗e liked to say, 鈥楢 painter paints to live, an artist lives to paint,鈥欌�� said de Belle of his grandfather鈥檚 credo. 鈥淎nd he clearly thought of himself as an artist. All he thought about, day and night, was his art.鈥澨�
As for the prickliness that may well have made potential buyers wary, the stories are many.听
鈥淢y father told me that, especially as his father got older, he would go into rages,鈥� de Belle said. 鈥淗e鈥檇 step onto the bus or a streetcar and if some young fellow was sitting and not giving a woman his seat, he鈥檇 knock him on the knee with his cane and shout, 鈥楪et up!鈥欌�澨�
Social niceties sometimes took a back seat in other settings, too. Sometimes at family gatherings, said de Belle, 鈥淗e would walk around looking at the artworks on the walls and say, 鈥楾hese paintings are terrible! Let me give you one of mine.鈥欌�澨�
A slim, elegantly designed book, Heavenly is a quick read. Acknowledging a relative paucity of surviving firsthand material on his grandfather鈥檚 life, de Belle makes efficient use of what鈥檚 available, keeping the narrative moving briskly along while allowing himself some speculative scope when it鈥檚 directly relevant to specific works. What鈥檚 here is absorbing enough, though. In addition to considerable family intrigue, events in the broader world make their presence felt: war, British royalty and a close brush with the first and last voyage of the Titanic are no more than a degree or two removed from centre stage. But generally the images are allowed to do the heavy lifting, and they鈥檙e more than equal to the task.听
Among the works reproduced in Heavenly, an undoubted highlight is 鈥淟ouis,鈥� a portrait of the artist鈥檚 son (and the author's father), made when the subject was in his early teens. With its classical-style composition and sombre tones, it would look at home alongside a Whistler or a Sargent; indeed, Whistler was briefly Charles鈥� tutor. In a practice common in the Victorian and Edwardian eras鈥攁 time still fresh in the popular mind, both in Europe where the artist first made his name and in Quebec, where he settled in 1912鈥攖he boy in the painting could easily be taken for a young woman.听
鈥淢y guess, knowing a bit about psychology and psychiatry, is that he wanted to acknowledge and recognize his son (by doing a portrait), but not having been fond of his own father鈥攚ho was a bit of a scoundrel鈥攈e dressed the subject in black and made him look like a girl.鈥澨�
In addition to hints of a cross-generation dynamic with complicated undertones, some more prosaic factors had a hand in Charles de Belle鈥檚 artistic process.听
鈥淟ate in his life he had arthritis in his fingers, which made working in pastels too difficult,鈥� said de Belle. 鈥淪o he turned to oils. It鈥檚 a tribute to his skill that he was able to manipulate oils to resemble the delicacy of pastels.鈥澨�
In the piece chosen for the book鈥檚 cover, a group study of four young women is complemented by ghost-like presences emerging dimly from the soft-focus backdrop; the haunting effect calls to mind Chagall. As with 鈥淟ouis,鈥� the resemblance to a predecessor鈥檚 style feels more like organic kinship than conscious homage.听听
It鈥檚 important not to overplay the 鈥減overty鈥� component of the book鈥檚 subtitle鈥攊t鈥檚 not as if Charles de Belle didn鈥檛 sell at all while he was alive. Heavenly includes a story of a group of Queen Victoria鈥檚 ladies-in-waiting making an impromptu visit to the artist鈥檚 London studio and promptly facilitating a lucrative sale of three pastels to the Queen herself. Closer to home, said de Belle, one of Charles鈥� buyers was the wealthy father of one-time Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau. What鈥檚 more, indications are that, even if he did show a certain disdain for the pursuit of money, Charles was far from indifferent to the idea of posterity. He took great care, for example, to store his vulnerable pastel works between panes of glass. 听
鈥淗e wanted to create something of beauty, something that would last,鈥� said de Belle. 鈥淗e wanted to express something that people would remember, and that would make them happy.鈥澨�
For de Belle, the experience of creating Heavenly has had a satisfying full-circle aspect, not least because of its connections with his alma mater. When he mentions that the book is now in the collection at the Osler Library of the History of Medicine, the pride in his voice is palpable. What鈥檚 more, having had a long and rewarding career, he relishes the chance to pay some of it forward to the place that helped set him on his path.听听
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 do this to make a lot of money,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 want a portion of the royalties to be given as a reward to 平特五不中.鈥�
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