A love for Quebec folk artists and their stories
Building relationships while buying directly from the artists
Collector Susan Jacobson and her daughter, Dominique, are pictured above with Québec folk artist Wilfrid Richard at his home in 1994. Thirteen works by Richard from the Susan Jacobson Collection will be offered in Miller & Miller’s June 11 sale of Post-War Canadian Folk Art.
Different people collect folk art for different reasons. For Susan Jacobson, it was deeply personal.
“I collected the stories, the relationships and the folk art. It was a love affair and it still is.”
A collector of Quebec folk art carvings for over 50 years, Susan only bought directly from the artists themselves, never from dealers or at shows. “I can look at any piece and remember the story that came with it.”
Many years ago, she followed a dream and left teaching to open an antique shop in Peterborough, Ontario, which she later sold. She then moved to Quebec City where she not only learned to speak fluent French, she built a business working with Quebec women who were weaving or hooking mats, rugs and placemats, which she commissioned then sold to shops and at gift shows. It was while she was driving the back roads of Quebec to these women that she began to meet and get to know many of the province’s folk art carvers along the way.
M. Caron, 1982. This photo was featured in an article in Chatelaine magazine about women in business. Susan Jacobson is pictured on the left.
With the world and her own life evolving so quickly, Susan, who now lives in the Ottawa area, has decided to share some of the memories and pass along some of her treasured carvings, which she views as – “unique Canadian culture and art form” - to Miller & Miller Auctions , where they’ll be sold June 11, 2026 at their sale, Post-War Canadian Folk Art.
Among her consignments are 8 pieces by folk artist Wilfrid Richard (1894-1996), whom she got to know very well before he died at the remarkable age of 102.
“I spent hours and hours and hours with him,” says Susan. “The first time I met him he stood outside his house with a shotgun asking who I was and what I wanted, but he eventually invited me in and that was the beginning. He is probably one of my favourites.”
Wilfrid Richard (1894-1996)
Susan Jacobson and her daughter, Dominique, are pictured above with Québec folk artist Wilfrid Richard at his home in 1994.
Wilfrid Richard and his ancestors seemed to have carving embedded in their DNA. Mostly a lineage of farmers due to the necessity of making a living, carving was their personal passion, an art form that filled the hours and fed the soul. Wilfrid’s father, also a carver, was the sixth generation of Richards who had first emigrated from France to Quebec in 1670. Three of Wilfrid’s seven siblings became carvers, plus of his own 15 children (only six survived) three of them also carved.
Among the Wilfrid Richard works in the sale is a charming carved shelf (Lot 43, estimated at $1,600 to $2,000), alongside a selection of the animal subjects for which he became best known. From an impressive large moose and characterful large pig to delicately observed sheep, goat, and ‘chien’ carvings, the grouping highlights Richard’s remarkable ability to capture both the personality and physical presence of his subjects through deceptively simple forms and confident, masterful carving.
The above works by Wilfrid Richard are offered in the June 11 sale of Post-War Canadian Folk Art. Click each to view in the sale catalogue.
“Wilfrid was constantly chipping away and he was settled and happy,” says Susan. “His life was so full. It was never a commercial venture. It was never about the money. He did it for the love of it.”
A highlight among the items coming to auction is a carving of a bear (Lot 34) and a zebra (Lot 33) by a humble and religious Quebec folk artist, Philippe Roy (1899-1982). “You rarely see his carvings,” says Phil Ross, a Miller & Miller Auctions specialist in folk art. “Most of his work is religious and his figures are really beautiful. In 50 years of collecting I’ve only seen a few pieces. For serious Quebec collectors his work has a very special place.”
There are also two carvings by Leo Fournier (1924-2007), an auto body worker who only began carving in retirement. Known mainly for his religious and animal carvings, he also dabbled in the erotic. Phil met Fournier once during his Quebec travels just as he was crossing the street from the local dépanneur (convenience store), which he visited three times a day, buying a single beer each time before returning to his carving. “He was a real character,” Phil recalls, adding that Fournier was commissioned by the Quebec government in the 1990s to do carvings of food production. He used the money to take himself to Russia instead of fixing his roof and while there he studied art at the Hermitage Museum. Fournier’s carvings of a woman holding a bird on a platter (Lot 11, estimated at $1,200 - $1,500) and a woman in a blue dress (Lot 12, estimated at $600 - $900) are in the sale.
Edmond Chatigny (1895-1985) was a Quebec cattle farmer with 13 children who carved sculptures to fight boredom. He used what he made to decorate his yard. He was primarily known for first carving a large base then attaching smaller carvings on top of it to create unusual arrangements. He only painted them using four colours: red, green, brown and white. Lot 64, estimated at CA$1,200 -$1,600 is a Bird Sculpture in excellent condition, a rare survivor.
While Susan’s professional life has undergone many changes over the decades, her love of Quebec folk art carvings and the people who made them has remained steadfast. “I come from an artistic family and I believe an artist creates for their own satisfaction. It’s part of their soul.”
“There are incredible stories behind all these things. They came from an era when people took the time to sit down together and chat. Relationships were built eye to eye and face to face as we got to know one another. Seldom did I leave without a hug, a special carving made for me or my young daughter, or a treat from the farm kitchen.
By Diane Sewell
Diane Sewell has been a writer for more than 25 years, producing feature stories for some of the country’s top newspapers and consumer magazines, as well as client newsletters and commissioned books.
Watch the video above as Phil Ross, Folk Art Specialist at Miller & Miller, gives an overview of our upcoming June 11 sale of Post-War Canadian Folk Art.
SALE INFORMATION:
Post-War Canadian Folk Art
June 11, 2026, 5pm EST
Live Webcast Auction
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