Alphonse Jongers (1872-1945)

He was born in the Basque Country in France and studied art at the École des Beaux-Arts under Delaunay and Gustave Moreau. He continued his studies in Madrid for two years and in 1895 at the Prado Museum met John Singer Sargent. Returning with him to England they worked together with others of his group on the murals for the Boston Library. From England he first came to Canada in 1896 when he was asked to do the portrait of the Governor-General, the Marquess of Aberdeen. He returned to France when he was commissioned by the Duc de Gramont to paint his portrait before settling in New York City where he was elected to the Society of American Artists. He was awarded the silver medal at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. In 1906, he received the bronze medal at the Salon of French Artists then taking the silver medal in 1911 before being made a Member of the Légion d'Honneur in 1912. The museums of Lille, Liège, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and the Galerie des Offices in Florence, Italy, all bought and displayed his paintings.

In 1903, in New York City, he married Louise McAllister, niece of the leader of Gilded Age society, Ward McAllister. She was the ex-wife of Alexander Cameron Young by whom she had one daughter, Louise, who took the surname "Jongers" and may have been his natural daughter. The portrait he painted of her in 1908 with her pet parrot is on display at the Met Museum in New York. Before separating, they lived at 200 West 57th Street in New York City, and when he left for Montreal, she settled in Monte Carlo where she died.

From 1924 until his death, he made his home at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal, and several of his works were displayed at the salons of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. At the Ritz, he became friends with Elwood Hosmer and it was a matter of debate whether Jongers was, "best known around the hotel for his imposing series of amours or for his superb portraits." He died at the Ritz when his obituary read, "his gay outlook on life, his rich sense of humor, his witty, and tolerant comments on men and affairs made him a welcome and attractive figure in social and artistic circles here and wherever he went."

His subjects included: Florence Griswold, Founder of the Old Lyme Art Colony and the Florence Griswold Museum, Connecticut; Isidor Straus, co-owner of Macy's Department Store in New York who went down on the Titanic; Mrs. & Mr. Benjamin Guggenheim, who also went down on the Titanic; Charles Cahen d'Anvers, last owner of the Château de Champs-sur-Marne; U.S. Secretary of State Philander Chase Knox; John Schuyler Crosby, U.S. Consul at Florence, Italy; Sir Vincent Meredith, President of the Bank of Montreal; Newspaper Publisher Lord Atholstan; the artist Henry Ward Ranger; art collector William T. Evans; the children of Charles Millard Pratt; Mary Cabot (Higginson) Sears of Boston; Maisie Cadwell, of Clarendon Court, Newport; Nell Ford Torrey, of Clairview; Mrs D. Willis James, Theodorus Bailey Woolsey, President of the New York Hospital; Air Marshall Billy Bishop; J-Napoleon Hamel; William Hope; Sir Charles Gordon; Mrs. J.K.L. Ross, etc.