Painted Collage on Board

Louis de Niverville was born in 1933 in Andover, England to Canadian parents. When he was one, the family returned to Montreal where he spent his early childhood. At age six, de Niverville was hospitalised for five years due to spinal tuberculosis. This prolonged period of isolation profoundly influenced his creative development. He attributed the fantasy and imagination in his later work to the long hours he spent alone, entertaining himself in the hospital.

 

In 1957 de Niverville moved to Toronto. Despite lacking formal art education, he found employment as a freelance illustrator for Mayfair magazine and worked in the graphics department of the Canadian Broadcasting Company. In 1965 he dedicated himself to painting and collage. A turning point in his career came in 1967 when he was commissioned to paint a mural for Expo Theatre in Montréal.

 

Throughout his career Louis de Niverville received many mural commissions. Notable projects include murals for the Toronto International Airport, the atrium of The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and in the Spadina subway station for the Toronto Transit Commission. He had two major retrospectives at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario. The first of these exhibitions travelled to thirteen Canadian galleries including the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

 

Louis de Niverville's work can be found in many public collections, including the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Canada Council Art Bank in Ottawa, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée d'art Contemporain in Montreal, and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

 

When I was a child my pair of scissors was my most important toy; I liked to cut characters out of comic books. These little people took on a life of their own and became my best friends and even my family. I kept them in an envelope and when I took them out they gave wings to my imagination.  –Louis de Niverville