Pauline Boutal

Pauline Boutal C.M. (September 8, 1894 – April 30, 1992) was a French Canadian artist, theatrical designer, actress and educator.

Career On her return from France in 1917, Boutal joined the commercial art firm Brigdens of Winnipeg, where she mainly worked on illustrations for the Eaton's catalogue. She continued her studies in art at the Winnipeg School of Art (now the School of Art at the University of Manitoba), taking classes with LeMoine FitzGerald and Frank Johnston. She also later took lessons with George Elmer Browne and Henry Hensche in the United States, with André Lhote in Paris and with Charles Picart Le Doux at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.

Collections Her work is included in the collection of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.

Honours Boutal was named an Officier in the French Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 1939. In 1950, she received the Canadian Drama Award. She received a Manitoba Golden Boy Award in 1963, the first francophone to receive that honour. She was named to the Order of Canada in 1973 for her contributions to the development and growth of French theatre in Manitoba. In 1975, the Centre culturel Franco-manitobain renamed its theatre Salle Pauline Boutal in her honour. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Manitoba in 1978. Boutal was named to the Ordre des francophones d'Amérique in 1981.

Later life and death Later in life, she gave private art classes in her studio at home and also taught art to children at a local school on Saturday mornings.

Boutal died in Saint Boniface at the age of 97.