Henri Julien, baptised Octave-Henri Julien was a French Canadianartist and cartoonist noted for his work for the Canadian Illustrated News and for his political cartoons in the Montreal Daily Star. His pseudonyms include Octavo and Crincrin. He was the first full-time newspaper editorial cartoonist in Canada.
Personal history and career
Octave-Henri Julien was born in Quebec City on 14 May 1852 to Henri and Zoé Julien and grew up in the Saint-Roch neighbourhood. His father worked as a turner for a mechanical press and his brothers Émile and Télesphore also went on to work in printing. Early influences on Julien include caricatures by the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Côté, who lived nearby among the artisans of saint-Roche, and the country folk of nearby L'Ange-Gardien who inspired many of Julien's later drawings. After the elder Julien won work with the Queen's printer George-Paschal Desbarats the family frequently moved as the capital of the Province of Canada moved: Toronto in 1855–59, Quebec City in 1859–65, and Ottawa in 1866–68, where he attended the College of Ottawa. He thereafter moved to Montreal where he apprenticed as an engraver at Leggo and Company, a partnership between William Leggo and George-Édouard Desbarats, where he met cartoonists such as Edward Jump who worked for Desbarats's illustrated magazines Canadian Illustrated News and. Julien cartooned in Desbarats's employ until 1888; during this time he contributed to numerous other publications as well, including Le Canard and Le Violon published by Hector Berthelot, sometimes under pseudonyms such as Crincrin and Octavo. His work included caricatures of politicians and illustrated journalism. In 1874 he accompanied George Arthur French and the North-West Mounted Police on an expedition to the fork of the Bow and Belly Rivers in Alberta; his drawings of the Canadian West appeared in the Canadian Illustrated News and L'Opinion publique in 1874–75, including a report on combatting contraband alcohol sales in Fort Whoop-Up. Julien spent six months in New York in 1888; upon his return to Canada the same year he became artistic director at the Montreal Daily Star, which thus became the first Canadian newspaper to employ a full-time editorial cartoonist. Julien stayed with the paper for 22 years and built his reputation illustrating historical even and journalistic pieces, as well as drawing caricatures of members of Parliament in the House of Commons in Ottawa. He drew notice in 1897–1900 when he had published a number of caricatures of Wilfrid Laurier and his cabinet as blackface minstrels under the title "By-Town Coons". His best known work was of rural French Canadians which he started making about 1875 and continued for the rest of his life. From 1900 he took up painting, particularly commissions for scenes from French Canadian culture. His works appeared in exhibitions at the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1899 and 1907 and at the Salon of the Art Association of Montreal in 1908. Julien drew with speed and accuracy and attracted note for his skill at capturing expressions and gestures. He illustrated the annual and his work appeared in other Canadian publications such as John Wilson Bengough's Grip, Desbarats's Dominion Illustrated, Favourite, Jester, Canard, and Grelot, as well as foreign publications such as the American Harper's Weekly, the British The Graphic, and the French Le Monde illustré and L'Illustration. Julien married Marie-Louise Legault dit Deslauriers in Montreal on 17 October 1876; of the couple's eighteen children, seven daughters and one son survived into adulthood. Julien died in Montreal on 17 September 1908. of a sudden stroke of apoplexy on St. James Street across from the St. Lawrence Hall. He had just left the Montreal Star in apparent good health with his son. At the time he was developing sketches for a parade to celebrate Quebec's 300th anniversary.
