Jeunes Filles, Rue Beaudry, 1970

Jeunes Filles - Rue Beaudry  is a story about a neighbourhood, the people, the neighbours and of course the built heritage.  As one might have anticipated, since John Little painted this composition in 1970 of Rue Beaudry at av. Brien, much has changed. In fact, av. Brien, formerly a cul-de-sac with only a few doors, is gone, now parking for a low rise apartment building constructed on that open lot, Little implies on the centre- right-hand side of his painting. 

While Little’s painting places are limited primarily to Montreal and Quebec City, his story is a North American one, an observation that “urban renewal” and “suburbanization” were adversely changing and even obliterating the heritage of neighbourhoods, the people and the built heritage. It was fully a generation after Little began to commemorate in paint these areas that were being adversely affected by social policies dictated by City Hall in Little’s City of Montreal, municipal officials changed course, now looking to conserve some neighbourhoods and repopulate the downtown core which they had previously dedicated to offices.