"I thought it would be interesting to look at an anthropologist painter from an anthropological perspective."

Excerpt from an interview with Jean Roy about the creation of Krieghoff or the Studio of a Popular Artist.

SL: Why were you interested in Krieghoff rather than someone else?

JR: Krieghoff is not a major, internationally recognized painter but he is an important painter here, in Canada. His art has a lot in common with Dutch art, which I'm particularly fond of. Actually, the idea for this film came about because I was working on a historical television series and, at one point, I used some Krieghoff paintings to illustrate 19th century Québec. I instinctively thought, "Okay, but hold on; the images are pretty, they're interesting, but are they representative of French-Canadian reality at that time?" That's the true ethnological question at the heart of the film. This was the film's original focus and I never turned away from it. And I think it's an idea that is still relevant because these paintings have been reproduced everywhere, ad nauseam."

SL: How was the film developed?

JR: The film really took off for me when I made the decision to do an in-depth study of Krieghoff. I said to myself, "By the time the film comes out, I will have gone through all the research – past and present." Because, basically, that was the subject. It wasn't Krieghoff's work, but rather the mountain of theories about his work, the diverse points of view. I tried to examine Krieghoff's work, to see if it had ethnological value or not. So, unavoidably, given the nature of this project, I created a history of the history. I went back down the road that scholars have been travelling on for the last 150 years.  That was really exciting for me. Maybe the film suffers a bit because of this too; I really got so caught up in it all – in the symbols and the elements. There is an urgency in the delivery… I wanted to make sense of all this dense material… There is a lot of material. Probably too much for just one film.

SL: The film plays with Krieghoff's work, reconstructing them in a way. Why did you use this process?

JR: The reconstructing of Krieghoff's work – using his paintings to frame the interviews –, was something that I really enjoyed doing but it also demanded a great deal of time. The point was to show that we are not far from the subject; Krieghoff is not so far away. A ton of things have happened since the era when the painter was alive but, actually, not that much has happened either. The landscapes he reproduced are still here; they can be found.  The idea was to show that Krieghoff can be contemporary. His point of view can be felt in the nature surrounding us. That was the idea. The ice cone at the falls of Montmorency – he painted it, but it still exists. You go into the forest and you recognize the landscapes he painted.

What's even more interesting is that we know he worked in a studio. So, he made some sketches of nature and then he went back to work on the whole thing in his studio. These are actually reconstructed landscapes. Also, the same elements can be found in several of his paintings… But that's not what I find most interesting. It's more that, deep down, he was still inspired by nature. Even though he recomposed the landscapes, they were still our landscapes. And we can identify them. I did a lot of research about locations. I travelled extensively to find the distinctive branch of river in his First Nations paintings, the big rock, etc. I really enjoyed doing those reconstructions.

SL: What did you gain from the experience?

JR: It was a long process but it was one that allowed me to live each step to the fullest, not all at once, as is often the case in TV productions. That was really enjoyable. When you have the time, each step benefits from the others. You have the option of making readjustments along the way. This was the first time that I had so much time to explore a subject, to really delve into it. That's one of the reasons why I'm still happy with the results. I'm happy to have successfully completed this film.