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This original 1960 vintage drawing, created by renowned artist Louis Muhlstock, features a nude female figure rendered in a beautiful pastel painting.
Louis Muhlstock (April 23, 1904, Narajow, Austria-Hungary – August 26, 2001, Montréal) was a Jewish Canadian artist, draftsman, and painter, best known for his evocative depictions of the Great Depression. After immigrating to Montréal in 1911, he worked in his family’s fruit-importing business while pursuing his passion for art, studying at night at the Monument National and the Art Association of Montreal (now the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts). His talent quickly gained recognition, and in 1925, he participated in his first exhibition at the Royal Canadian Academy.
In 1928, Muhlstock moved to Paris, where he spent three years refining his skills under figure painter Louis Biloul at the École des beaux-arts and sketching at l’Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse. This prestigious private art school had previously nurtured artists such as Amedeo Modigliani and Jean-Paul Riopelle. During his time in Paris, Muhlstock exhibited his work at various salons before returning to Montréal in 1931. There, he established his own studio, transitioning into a full-time painting career while also teaching drawing.
Deeply attuned to the social realities of his time, Muhlstock created sensitive chalk and charcoal sketches of unemployed men in Fletcher’s Field, often drawing on simple wrapping paper. During World War II, he documented shipyard workers in Montréal, a theme exemplified in War Workers, 1945. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, his work was widely exhibited, including solo shows at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Waddington Galleries.
By the 1970s, his artistic style evolved towards abstraction. In 1996, an extensive retrospective featuring 80 of his works was showcased in galleries across Québec and Edmonton. Until his final days, Muhlstock remained dedicated to painting, describing his art as “a moment in time only.”
Muhlstock was an esteemed member of several artistic organizations, including the Canadian Society of Graphic Artists, the Canadian Group of Painters, the Contemporary Arts Society, the Federation of Canadian Artists, and the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. His contributions to Canadian art earned him numerous honors, including being named an Officer of the Order of Canada (1991) and a Knight of the National Order of Québec (1998). He was also a key figure in the Jewish Painters of Montreal, a collective whose works have been displayed in galleries across Canada. In 2009, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec curated Jewish Painters of Montreal: Witnesses of Their Time (1930–1948), reigniting appreciation for Muhlstock and his contemporaries in Montréal, Toronto, and Vancouver.
Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia; National Gallery of Canada; Trépanier, Esther. Jewish Painters of Montreal: Witnesses of their Time 1930-1948. Montreal: Éditions de l’Homme, 2008.
Artist: Louis Muhlstock (1904-2001).
Signed and dated 1960.
Medium: Pastel on paper.
Condition: Very good condition.
Dimensions: 63.5 x 48.5 cm. / 25 x 19 in. (sheet).
Frame: 80 x 62 cm / 31 1/2 x 24 1/2 in. Very good condition.
Origin: Canada.
