Pauline Boutal
Pauline Boutal C.M. (September 8, 1894 – April 30, 1992) was a French Canadian artist, stage designer, actress and teacher. Born Pauline Le Goff in Brittany, she moved with her family to Manitoba in 1907. She started as a typesetter for Le Nouvelliste in 1909, where she met her future husband Arthur Boutal. She studied art in Winnipeg and abroad, and in 1916 she married Arthur in France.
Returning to Winnipeg in 1917, she worked for a commercial art firm and continued her art studies. In 1925 she joined the Winnipeg theatre group Le Cercle Molière; she acted and later became director after Arthur’s death in 1941. She designed sets and costumes for theatre and also painted landscapes and portraits.
From 1932 to 1975 she exhibited with the Manitoba Society of Artists and had shows at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and four solo exhibitions at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain. Her work is in major collections.
Her honors include the French Palmes Académiques (1939), the Canadian Drama Award (1950), the Manitoba Golden Boy Award (1963), and the Order of Canada (1973). The Centre culturel franco-manitobain named its theatre Salle Pauline Boutal in 1975, and she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Manitoba in 1978. She taught art in her later years and died in Saint Boniface at age 97.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:01 (CET).