MELOCHE, Francois Xavier Edouard (1855-1914), a pupil and disciple of Napolean Bourassa, a leading Quebec painter, architect and sculptor. Meloche was born in Montreal, son of Charles Meloche, a clock-maker, and by 1877 he had been working as a professional artist there. After an apprenticeship with Bourassa, he travelled to France and Italy to study ecclesiastical art and architectural design, returning to Montreal in late 1889.
He is best known for his fresco decoration and painting on the interiors of at least thirty Roman Catholic cathedrals and parish churches in Quebec, but his name was also cited as 'the architect' of at least three projects in Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba., including the design of an elaborate octagonal tower and cupola on the roof of Bonsecours Church in Montreal (1892), as well as the design of Immaculate Conception Church in Winnipeg (1892) for which it is said that 'the plans were drawn by Mr. Meloche, architect of Montreal' In 1893 he was awarded a medal for his 'Architectural Plans and Drawings' at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Meloche died in Montreal on 15 August 1914 (death notice Le Devoir [Montreal], 17 Aug. 1914, 8; biog. and list of works in J. Russell Harper, Early Painters and Engravers in Canada, 1970, 221; Cecile Belley, 'Le Decor d'architecture de Francois-Edouard Meloche' in the Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, xii, March 1987, 10-12, illus.)
MONTREAL, QUE., addition of a Votive Chapel and cupola on the roof of Our Lady of Bonsecours Roman Catholic Church, 1892 (Gazette [Montreal], 28 July 1892, 5, descrip.)
WINNIPEG, MAN., Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, Austin Street, 1892 (Manitoba Free Press [Winnipeg], 8 Oct. 1892, 3, descrip.)
PETERBOROUGH, ONT., interior decoration of St. Peter's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Reid Street, 1897 (Catholic Register [Toronto], 15 April 1897, 7, descrip.)