The Louis Riel Bust
This bust designed by the Franco-Manitoban artist Réal Bérard (on the right) was cast in bronze at William Epp’s (left) studio in Saskatoon. A committee created to commemorate the Centenary of Louis Riel’s death had organised a fund-raising campaign in 1985 to erect a commemorative monument. The monument, located in front of the St. Boniface Museum, was unveiled on October 22, 1989, on the birth date of Louis Riel.
A painter, illustrator, political cartoonist, sculptor, and cartographer, Réal Bérard is one of Francophone Manitoba’s most important visual artists, through the diversity of his works and the scope of his contributions. Since 1982, his political cartoons appear each week under the pen name “Cayouche” in the French-language newspaper La Liberté. In 1990, he illustrated for the National Film Board an animated short film on a song written by Daniel Lavoie. The animated short, Jours de Plaines, was a finalist at the Cannes International Film Festival in France, and presented in Uppsala in Sweden. The film received a Gold Plaque for Animation at the 26th Chicago International Film Festival and the best animation award in Calgary in 1981. Réal Bérard was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2017.