Musée des beaux-arts de Mont-Saint-Hilaire
Virtual Museum of Canada

Avant-garde Architecture

The house built by Paul-Émile Borduas may be considered to be one of the first manifestations of Modernism in Canada. Both visually and formally, it is reminiscent of European architecture in the 1920-1940 period, when the De Stijl movement, the Bauhaus school and Le Corbusier were influential. The straight lines and square volumes of the house and its white exterior walls are the result of a reflection on Modern architecture and the International style. Borduas planned the house as a functional living space. The interior is marked by open areas filled with daylight and by the warm tones of natural wood on the floors, walls and ceilings. The simple forms and clean lines make this house an exceptional example of Modern architecture and, even today, a vivid reminder of the period. At this time, two Montréal architects were influential in promoting the integration of Art Deco ideals with architecture: Marcel Parizeau, one of Borduas’ colleagues at the École du Meuble (School of furniture making), and Ernest Cormier, who taught at the École polytechnique (Polytechnical school) in Montréal.


Panoramic view of the living area
Duration: 53 seconds
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 In 1952, just before Borduas left for New York, Dr. Alphonse Campeau and his wife Fernande bought the house. For over forty years, the new owners maintained the house in an exemplary manner, considering it already to be a historic monument associated with Borduas’ Legacy. The house has thus remained, both inside and outside, a testament to the artist’s thought and the period when he lived there. Over time, however, the owners had to make certain changes that were necessary for the property’s material survival. For example, when it was found that an underground stream affected the foundations, it became necessary to move the house a few metres. This meant that new foundations had to be poured and that Borduas’ studio was lost. Photographs from the 1940s show the original state of the house and provide a point of comparison for subsequent changes made to the building as a whole.

In 1998, the owners decided to sell the house they had acquired from Paul-Émile Borduas 46 years previously. Through the efforts of the president and founder of the Musée des beaux-arts de Mont-Saint-Hilaire (Mont-Saint-Hilaire museum of fine arts), the house was classified as a cultural property by the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec on April 14, 2000. A foundation was then established to acquire the house in view of making it into an interpretation centre for the Automatist movement and Refus global. The house was bought by the Fondation de la Maison Paul-Émile Borduas in 2001 and, in 2008, was donated to the Museum, which undertook to ensure its protection.

Header image: Northwest corner of Paul-Émile Borduas' house.

In 1940, Borduas borrowed $1 400 from this father-in-law [ca. April 3, 1941], a sum which he repaid in full on November 17, 1944: «I had the opportunity at Saint-Hilaire to borrow the total amount I owed on the house at a rate 4½ % per annum. This meant a considerable reduction in interest.
I am thus returning $1 500.00 to you, which gives you back the capital and almost all the interest due.
Thank you once again for your generous and patient aid. It was very useful and a comfort to my little family.»

In 1944, Ozias Leduc wrote a New Year’s greeting to the family and mentioned the avant-garde character of the Borduas house in thanking Janine for the card she had made him: «A happy New Year to the father and mother and the dear little ones. A special thank you to Jeannine for her card – no doubt the expression of a pied à terre somewhere; one would like to go directly [under] this lovely holiday, or perhaps heavenly, palm tree, right beside this little house, which could have been designed by Le Corbusier.»