The house that you are about to visit, and
its contents, are the life's work of a woman who dedicated herself to finding and preserving the material evidence of the traditions that Quebec inherited from New France.

Upon her death in March 2002, Mrs. Sharpe left the house and its contents to our museum. You will be able to imagine our excitement on entering this ancestral home and discovering the treasures that she assembled and cherished over nearly half a century. You will also understand why we wanted to show this collection to the public as soon as possible, well before we finished researching it. This national treasure was bequeathed to us so that we could share it with the world. We have prepared this virtual tour as quickly as possible, even though that meant limiting the descriptions accompanying the illustrations.

This collection is now at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau where it will be the focus of a number of research and exhibition projects in the coming years.

Enjoy your visit!

Jean-François Blanchette, Ph.D.
Curator, Folk Art and Material Culture
Canadian Museum of Civilization

Photographs by Steven Darby

The photographs that you will be viewing in this virtual tour of the Nettie Covey Sharpe House are the work of Canadian Museum of Civilization photographer Steven Darby. These photos are copyright protected © . If you wish to use them in any way, you must first obtain written permission from the Museum.

Acknowledgments

Léonard Anderson generously shared his memories of his close friend, Mrs. Sharpe. Robert and Michelle Picard and Peter Baker, antique dealers and friends of Mrs. Sharpe, filled me in on several aspects of her professional and personal life. Merlin Acomb, museologist and friend of Mrs. Sharpe, assisted in the documentation of several pieces in the collection. I am extremely grateful to all these people for their collaboration. The author, however, assumes full responsibility for the text.

Credits

Research and texts: Jean-François Blanchette
Web design and development: Charles Whalen
Photography: Steven Darby
Translation from the French : Victoria Barkoff, Kalamuse

Suggested Reading

BLANCHETTE, Jean-François. "La Collection Nettie Covey Sharpe. Trois mille objets, trois siècles d'histoire", Cap-aux-diamants, No. 73, Printemps 2003, pp. 57-58, Québec.

BLANCHETTE, Jean-François. "The Nettie Covey Sharpe Collection. The largest donation ever made to the Canadian Museum of Civilization", Between Us, Spring 2003. Gatineau, Canadian Museum of Civilization.

BLANCHETTE, Jean-François. "In Search of the French Canadian Aesthetic – The Work of Nettie Covey Sharpe", Between Us, Fall 2003. Gatineau, Canadian Museum of Civilization.

BLANCHETTE, Jean-François. "Nettie Covey Sharpe's Legacy. An Antique Dealer's Passion for French Canada", Antique Showcase, November-December 2003.

CARPENTIER, Paul. "L'art populaire et Marius Barbeau, le populiste" dans Pascale Galipeau Les paradis du monde, l'art populaire au Québec, Mercury Series, Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies, no.68, Hull, Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1995, pp. 78-82.

CRÉPEAU, Pierre. Pointing at the Wind – The Weather-Vane Collection of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1990, 84 pages.

CRÉPEAU, Pierre. Playing with the Wind – The Whirligig Collection of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1991, 55 pages.

CRÉPEAU, Pierre, Jean-François Blanchette, Magnus Einarsson, Stephen Inglis, Wesley Mattie and Philip Tilney. From the Heart – Folk Art in Canada, Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1983.

DUNBAR, Nancy. Images du sport dans le Canada d'autrefois / Images of Sports in Early Canada, Montreal, McCord Museum and McGill-Queen's University Press, 1976.

FINLAYSON, R.W. Portneuf Pottery – Potterie Portneuf, Don Mills, Longman, 1972.

FLEMING, Patricia and Thomas Carpenter. Traditions in Wood. A History of Wildfowl Decoys in Canada, Camden East, Camden House, 1987, 179 p.

GALIPEAU, Pascale. Les Paradis du monde, Mercury Series, Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies, no.68, Hull, Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1995.

GÉLINAS, Céline. Un art pas si bête, l'art populaire en Gaspésie. Gaspé, Musée de la Gaspésie, 1993.

HARDY, Jean-Pierre, La vie quotidienne dans la vallée du Saint-Laurent, 1790-1835, Québec, Septentrion, 178 pages.

HARPER, J. Russell. "Folk Sculpture of Rural Quebec", in Antiques, Vol. CIII, no. 4, April 1973, pp. 724-733.

HARPER, J. Russell. L'art populaire: l'art naïf au Canada, Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, 1973.

HARPER, J. Russell. A People's Art: Primitive, Naïve, Provincial, and Folk Painting in Canada, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1974.

PALARDY, Jean. The early furniture of French Canada. Toronto, Macmillan, 1963.

PICARD, Michelle et Robert. "Madame Nettie Sharpe (1907-2002), pionnière, collectionneuse et esthète," Magazin'Art, no. 61, autumn 2003, 16^e année, no. 1.

VILLENEUVE, René. Baroque to Neo-classical : Sculpture in Quebec. Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, 1997.