page_title: Rita Letendre
section_title: École des Beaux-Arts
hierarchical_section_title: Rita Letendre / École des Beaux-Arts
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph taken by Misterlobat of work by Rita Letendre to show an example of her work in pastel.
context_page_description: Rita Letendre, CM OQ OOnt is a Canadian painter, muralist and printmaker associated with the Automatistes and the Plasticiens. She is an officer of the Order of Canada and a recipient of the Governor General’s Award.
context_section_description: At age 19, while working at a restaurant in mid-town Montreal, a patron had seen some of the sketches she was working on when business became quiet and was struck by her talent. Practically insisting she enrol in the École des Beaux-Arts (of which Letendre had never heard), he picked her up at home, took her to the school and stood at the bottom of the steps ensuring she entered, then continued to stand there long enough for her to be asked if she was enrolling – the answer was "Yes". After several questionnaires and a practical exam she was accepted. It was there that she met friends Gilles Groulx, and Ulysse Comtois who was to be her boyfriend and partner for over 15 years. There she worked in a very academic atmosphere for a year and a half. In 1950 she went to view an art show "L’Exposition des Rebelles" (despite being largely condemned by her professors) and befriended the show organizer Jean-Paul Mousseau – this was her introduction to the circle of Borduas and the Automatistes. Soon thereafter, she left l'Ecole des Beaux-Art.
caption: Sunrise – Pastel on paper by Rita Letendre, 1989.
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