TABLE OF CONTENTS

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketch

Scope and Contents

Index Terms

Administrative Information

Custodial History

Preferred Citation

Contact Information

Box List

Ruby LeBoutillier fonds:

Finding Aid

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Biographical Sketch

Ruby Vivian LeBoutillier (1898-1986), Canadian artist and designer, was born in Westmount, Quebec. She grew up in Vancouver and Winnipeg, returning with her mother and her sisters (Olive and Blina) to live in Montreal after the death of her father in 1920. LeBoutillier studied art at the New York School of Interior Decoration and Design (1924-1925; 1935), in Montreal (1927-ca.1928), and at the Old Mill Studio, Elizabethtown, New York (1947; 1949). She worked as a stylist for Dominion Oilcloth and Linoleum Co. Limited (1929-1937), wrote paint advertisements for Caffield Brown Advertising Co., and taught women's painting classes at her home (1949-1979). LeBoutillier became a member of the Montreal Art Association in 1927, exhibiting mainly flower paintings but also designs for interiors with the Association from ca.1930-1942. She also exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, the Watson Art Galleries, Montreal (1936), and the Canadian National Exhibition. In 1931, LeBoutillier won the prize for furniture at the Canadian Handicrafts Guild, Montreal, with a Chinese lacquer screen that she built and decorated. LeBoutillier's lacquer designs were inspired by oriental antiques, passed down in her family by her grandfather, a former China Clipper ship owner in Jersey, Channel Islands, United Kingdom.

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Scope and Contents

Fonds includes of 1 oil painting, 1 poster design, and 3 watercolours by Ruby LeBoutillier. Wallpaper designs and samples, including 9 watercolours, 5 pen and ink drawings of garden scenes, 1 watercolour design for a border, 1 painted logo design, and miscellaneous sketches for cards and chinoiseries, all by Ruby LeBoutillier, are also included with the fonds along with a watercolour painting by Olive LeBoutillier, the artist's sister. The fonds further includes teaching notes, tickets, invitations and labels for exhibitions of LeBoutillier's work (at the Royal Canadian Academy, the Canadian National Exhibition and the Art Association of Montreal (1930-1942), 2 drawings by LeBoutillier, and 8 photographs of flooring designs for Dominion Oilcloth and Linoleum Co. Limited, LeBoutillier's matriculation certificates, the programme from her highschool graduation ceremony, a copy of a highschool publication (including one short story illustrated by LeBoutillier), 2 wood engravings of "Black Buck," by Canadian artist Donald Cameron MacKay (1906-1979) from Maritime Art, Dec. 1941, and a short story written by LeBoutillier. Newspaper and magazine clippings saved by LeBoutillier (including a scrapbook of clippings from Montreal and Ottawa newspapers on Art Association of Montreal and Royal Canadian Academy of Arts exhibitions (1930-1942), a folder of clippings of images of Quebec, a folder of clippings about lacquer and chinoiserie design, and a folder of clippings about the Channel Islands) also form part of the fonds. The fonds includes photographs of lacquer furniture, works of art by LeBoutillier, and LeBoutillier's class at the New York School of Interior Decoration. There are also family and vacation photographs.

Source of supplied title proper: Title based on contents of fonds.

Immediate source of acquisition: Donated to the National Gallery of Canada by Jean Houston, relative of Ruby LeBoutillier, 1990.

Physical description: Other material includes 280 photographs, 33 designs and sketches, 5 pen and ink drawings, and 4 paintings.

Finding aids: Box list available.

Note: Publications donated with the fonds are listed with the finding aid for the fonds and have been added to the National Gallery of Canada's library collection; oversized material is housed in a drawing cabinet.

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Administrative Information

Custodial History

Donated to the National Gallery of Canada by Jean Houston, relative of Ruby LeBoutillier, 1990.

Preferred Citation

Ruby LeBoutillier fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.

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Contact Information

Reference Services
Library and Archives 
National Gallery of Canada 
380 Sussex Drive 
Ottawa, Ontario 
K1N 9N4 

T 613-714-6000 ext. 6323 

[email protected]

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Box List

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