Source: WTL© photograph from Pierre Gauvreau; Passeur de modernité. Québec: Musée de la civilization, 2014, p. 44.
Image: "Les Insoumis, #X: Fleury Mesplet (1734-1794), imprimeur, éditeur, premier diffuseur des 'Lumières' au Canada" (2004). Mixed media on canvas.
Comments: The long title (Gauvreau's actual title) explains much about the content of this painting: Fleury Mesplet was a printer, newspaper editor (and owner), first disseminator of the Enlightenment in Canada. Although he was born in France, Mesplet was a French Canadian who founded Québec's oldest newspaper, which began as the Gazette Littéraire de Montréal in 1778; this literary journal later became the Montreal Gazette. , which is still published today (http://montrealgazette.com/). Before he went to Québec Mesplet went into the newspaper business in Philadelphia. At the beginning of the American War of Indpendence the Revolutionary Army captured Montreal with Mesplet among those who acompanied the American troops. However, when the American troops withdrew, Mesplet was captured and imprisoned by the British forces. He was released a year later but was again imprisoned for three years and fined for anti-British sedition. That is when he founded the Gazette Littéraire de Montréal. During his life he published over 70 works in four (!) languages: French, English, Latin, and the native language of the Montreal region, Iroquois.
Humanities Questions: (A) In brief, tell in the relationship is between the (18th century) French Enlightenment and being an "insoumis". (B) Gauvreau's painting is a collage that he produced late in life: what artistic elements does the painter use to express his admiration and understanding of this 18th century Québécois "unsubmitted" (unsubdued) humanist? (C) What is the relationship between Gauvreau's support for the Refus global and this particular painting (note: keep in mind the historical content of this painting)?