Henri Masson’s Violin Player, c. 1960 captures not just a musician, but a moment in the long creative journey of one of Canada’s most admired painters. Born in Spy, Belgium in 1907, Masson showed an early interest in art before immigrating with his mother to Ottawa in 1921 following his father’s death.

Masson trained initially as a master engraver, a craft he practised into his mid-thirties, honing a keen eye for detail and texture that would later enrich his painting. It was visits to the National Gallery of Canada that awakened his passion for painting, especially the work of the Group of Seven, inspiring him to pursue art seriously alongside his engraving work.

By the 1930s and ’40s, Masson had established himself as a painter of everyday life and landscape, known for his luminous compositions, and scenes of working-class neighbourhoods, rural villages, and local culture in Quebec and Ottawa-Hull. His subjects ranged from children playing hockey to fishermen mending nets, and musicians like this violinist, whose intensity reflects Masson’s lifelong interest in ordinary people at work and play.

Throughout his career, Masson exhibited widely — from Toronto and Montreal to New York and Paris, and became a member of key Canadian art societies, including the Canadian Group of Painters and the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. In later years he taught art extensively and was honoured as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1994.