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Alfred Laliberté

Jacques, the Outcast

Artist

Alfred Laliberté
Sainte-Élisabeth-de-Warwick, Quebec, 1877 – Montreal 1953

Title

Jacques, the Outcast

Date

1928-1932

Materials

Plaster

Dimensions

55 x 29.5 x 24 cm

Credits

Gift of Suzanne Brillant Fluehler and Hans C. Fluehler, inv. 1990.3

Collection

Quebec and Canadian Art

In the folk legends of a territory permeated by the Catholic faith, the Devil often plays a role. Divine punishment for blasphemy is equally frequent. Laliberté sculpted a number of such subjects based on stories and, less often, oral tradition. Jacques, the Outcast represents a drunken farmer returning from the fields. Addressed by a passerby as he is uttering an oath, he responds by thrusting his pitchfork at the body of the Christ on a wayside cross. It falls over on him, and his heart is pierced by his own pitchfork.

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