On air with CBC & Radio-Canada
Last Friday, I had the pleasure of joining René Saint-Louis (Radio-Canada) and Sabrina Marandola (CBC Radio One – Let’s Go!) to speak about John Little and the broader John Little Archive Project.
The interviews coincided with a poignant milestone — one year since John Little’s passing. In the twelve months since, his legacy has taken on new life through the first-ever museum exhibition devoted to his work at the Château Ramezay, as well as the ongoing effort to catalogue and digitize his vast studio archives.
In both interviews, we explored how John Little’s paintings preserve the soul of Montreal’s neighbourhoods. He remains the only Canadian urban painter to have deliberately dedicated his entire career to this mission, working through one of the most transformative periods in the city’s history.
Fittingly, the interviews took place at the new CBC / Radio-Canada headquarters, overlooking the demolition site of the former Radio-Canada tower — a place of deep historical significance and one of the featured stops on the John Little Bus Tour. This area, once part of the Faubourg à m’lasse district, was one that Little revisited throughout his career, painting it as it once stood before the neighbourhood was razed in the 1960s to make way for the original CBC complex. The exhibition at the Château Ramezay included works such as Fun and Games on Beaudry Street (1951) and Rue de la Visitation (Back in the 1950s) (2013), each reflecting Little’s enduring commitment to commemorating the people and places erased by urban renewal.
Today, as the site once again undergoes transformation, it stands as a living symbol of the cycle of loss and renewal that defined both Montreal’s modern era and Little’s enduring artistic vision.
We also discussed the remarkable scope of Little’s personal archive: tens of thousands of photographs, sketches, and notes that document the transformation of Montreal, Quebec City and more over nearly seventy years. These materials, now being catalogued and digitized through the John Little Archive Project, are an extraordinary historical resource as well as a window into the mind of one of Canada’s urban painter.
The conversations with René and Sabrina captured what makes Little’s work so enduring — its deep humanity. During our discussion, M. Saint-Louis shared that he had discovered a John Little painting depicting the home of one of his relatives, and, remarkably, we later located in the archive a photograph of the same home taken by Little himself. Moments like these reveal how personal and far-reaching Little’s art remains.
Whether portraying children skating in Saint-Henri or a quiet twilight on Sherbrooke Street, Little painted with a profound appreciation for everyday life. His art reminds us that Montreal’s buildings, streets, and people together form a living archive of memory and meaning — one that continues to resonate with countless people today.
