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LE BER, PIERRE, painter, son of Jacques Le Ber and Jeanne Le Moyne; baptized 11 Aug. 1669 at Montreal; d. 1 Oct. 1707 at Pointe-Saint-Charles, near Montreal.

Through his parents he belonged to the two richest families in Montreal. He was as generous as he was pious, and made substantial gifts to all the communities of the town, in particular to the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, where his sister Jeanne was a recluse, and to the Brothers Hospitallers of which he was a founder, along with Charon and Fredin, and to which he belonged, without pronouncing any vows.

The Le Bers were interested in the arts. His sister practised embroidery, and his brother Jacques, Sieur de Senneville, a professional soldier and merchant, devoted his leisure moments to painting, as is attested by his “Éducation de la Vierge” (1723), which is today in the church of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue.



In “Ma Saberdache,” Jacques Viger* transcribes a text by Abbé Sattin which relates that during the building of the Hôpital Général Le Ber “himself worked at the interior decoration by contributing a large number of pictures painted by his own hand,” and adds “that only one of them remains [in 1843], that it is a daub, and that the others have wisely been burned.” Despite this statement, it is doubtful that the Sisters of Charity resorted to such an auto-da-fé. The question is obscure. When in 1719 Brother Chrétien [Turc*] succeeded Charon at the head of the Hospitallers, he had an inventory of the establishment drawn up; no painting is listed in it, except a “picture representing a crucifix,” which was apparently a framed print. On the other hand, when Mother Youville [Dufrost*] took possession of the hospice in 1747, the inventory mentioned the presence of 27 pictures in the sacristy and the church. If one can go by the titles, only two of these would seem still to exist in the mother house of the Sisters of Charity: a “St Catherine” and a “Jésus au jardin des oliviers.” According to accounts of the time, it seems that the others were lost in the fire of 1765, and that they were not deliberately destroyed. Finally, to Le Ber are attributed various works which are to be found at the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, particularly an “Enfant Jésus” painted for Sister Barbier.

Jules Bazin

AJM, Greffe d’Antoine Adhémar, 23 oct. 1692, 11 mars 1707; Greffe de Bénigne Basset, 17 oct. 1692, 9 sept. 1697; Greffe de Louis-Claude Danré de Blanzy, 4–18 sept. 1747; Greffe de Pierre Raimbault, 3 oct. 1707. ANDM, Registres des baptêmes, mariages et sépultures. ASQ, Fonds Verreau, “Ma Saberdache.” É.-Z. Massicotte, “Inventaire des documents et des imprimés concernant la communauté des frères Charon et l’Hôpital Général de Montréal sous le régime français,” APQ Rapport, 1923–24, 168, 169, 195. Tanguay, Dictionnaire, I, 356. [É.-M. Faillon], Lhéroïne chrétienne du Canada; ou, Vie de Mlle Le Ber (Ville-Marie [Montréal], 1860), 160, 164, 218f., 329f. Harper, Painting in Canada. Gérard Morisset, Coup dœil sur les arts en Nouvelle-France (Québec, 1941), 32, 51; La peinture traditionnelle au C.f., 30f., 45. Jules Bazin, “Le vrai visage de Marguerite Bourgeoys,” Vie des Arts (Montréal), XXXVI (1964), 12–17.

General Bibliography

Cite This Article

Jules Bazin, “LE BER, PIERRE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed December 27, 2014, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/le_ber_pierre_2E.html.


Permalink: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/le_ber_pierre_2E.html
Author of Article: Jules Bazin
Title of Article: LE BER, PIERRE
Publication Name: Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2
Publisher: University of Toronto/Université Laval
Year of publication: 1969
Year of revision: 1969
Access Date: December 27, 2014