In Heaven and on Earth

🔍 Annunciation, Joliette Cathedral (photo: LB), © Estate of Ozias Leduc / SOCAN (2021)

The Saint-Charles-Borromée Cathedral in Joliette was built between 1887 and 1892 by the entrepreneur Martin Dangeville Dostaler. The project was an answer to a growing population's increasing needs and the desire of Catholic authorities to name Joliette the region's new Dioces. In 1892, Father Prosper Beaudry commissions Ozias Leduc to create a set of paintings that include the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary and the eight scenes from the Gospel.

Given the scope of the project which requires the decoration of the choir's and nave's vaults and the transepts, Leduc hires as assistants his brothers and his cousin Eugène L. Desautels. The latter will eventually become his associate.

Although some paintings, such as The Miraculous catch of fish and Jesus calms the storm are original compositions, most of his creations are based on works by European masters, from the Renaissance to the 19th century. The practice of copying masterpieces from photographs and prints was quite widespread at the time.

These paintings are mostly copies, arrangements based on photographs or printed reproductions of works by artists, most of them well known [...] or perhaps free interpretations of drawings and colors of the great masters. - Ozias Leduc

On a technical level, the project meant Leduc needed to create preparatory studies which were eventually transferred to the canvas using a grid technique.

Paintings for the choir vault were done on site because of its quarter-spheres' architectural difficulties. The rest of the canvases were painted in his workshop before being moved to Joliette.