Gauthier, Amable

GAUTHIER, Amable (1792--1873) was born at St.-Jean-Baptiste-de-Nicolet, Que. on 11 November 1792 and trained under the talented sculptor Louis Quevillon. He learned the art of architectural embellishment of church interiors under Quevillon and later moved to St.-Barthelemi in 1823 to open his own studio. It was not until 1844 that he began to call himself an architect and contractor and in this role is said to have designed and built several churches and executed designs for altars and interior decoration in many others. He moved to Maskinonge after 1850 and died there on 30 June 1873. Among his fifteen children was Louis-Zephirin Gauthier, the prolific Montreal architect (biography for Amable Gauthier in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, x, 1972, 301; biography in G. Morisset, l'Architecture en Nouvelle-France, 1949, 132)