Victor Delamarre

Victor Delamarre had a habit of packing his bags and heading to North Africa in the 1840s, sketchbook in hand, not to paint grand scenes but to study the quiet decay of old buildings. He’d sit for hours tracing the cracks in crumbling walls and the way sunlight carved shadows across broken arches. If you walk into the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, ask for the room with the 1840 prints—look for the one titled *Ruine* and notice how he made ruins feel alive, not dead.