Saskatchewan Artist

Henry Beaudry

Henry Beaudry was born in 1921 on the Poundmaker Reserve, near North Battleford, Saskatchewan. He was the great grandson of the distinguished Plains Cree Chief, Poundmaker.

He attended the Indian Residential School in Delmas, Saskatchewan, and in 1941 joined the Canadian Army and served in combat in Europe. After being wounded in combat, he was captured by German troops in 1944, and remained a prisoner of war until liberation in the spring of 1945.

Beaudry returned to Saskatchewan that same year, to Mosquito First Nation, where he took up painting in 1958.

A self-taught artist, Beaudry’s work has been exhibited at commercial and public art galleries across the prairies.

Of Beaudry’s painting, John Anson Warner, author of The Life and Art of the North American Indian, wrote: “His style, true to the representational-narrative character of contemporary Cree painting is realistic....His art is usually classified in the “naive” or “folk” category. As such, Beaudry’s art is the work of a man whose painting is an expression of his life.

Henry Baudrey died in October, 2016, on the Sweetgrass First Nation, near the Battlefords.