Here is a depiction of a calm and peaceful stretch of water: Lac des Piles. This lake is located in Mauricie in the Saint-Jean-des-Piles area, near Grand-Mère, now part of the city of Shawinigan.

As for the artist, Berthe Godin, she was the daughter of Hector Godin and Amanda Girard. She was born in January 1914 in Trois-Rivières. At her baptism, her godfather was her brother, Conrad. The family left to settle in Toronto. At the age of 8, she received her first watercolour box. She then returned to her native region, where she studied with the Ursulines of Trois-Rivières and was introduced to painting. She returned to Toronto until the age of 27, then married Marcel Crête, a lawyer and judge; the couple settled in Grand-Mère.

Marcel Crête was the son of Joseph-Alphida Crête (1890-1964), an optician and optometrist as well as a politician elected within the Liberal Party of Quebec to the National Assembly of Quebec (1931-1935), then as an MP from the Liberal Party of Canada to the House of Commons in Ottawa (1935-1945).

Berthe Godin Crête, a watercolour artist, produced several exhibitions solo or with her sister, Rolande Godin Nobert, including one at the Musée des Ursulines de Trois-Rivières in 1984 as part of the City’s 350th anniversary.

In 1990, during her 41st exhibition, she admitted to journalist Michelle Roy that she never stopped taking classes, “because watercolour seems simple, but it’s difficult, and you’re constantly learning new techniques to make the work easier.”

She died on September 24, 2012.

Musée Pierre-Boucher Collection
1997 100 D