In memory of Canadian artist Matthijs Cupido

Matthijs Cupido was born in 1939 in Dordrecht, a city in South Holland, into a family of ten boys and one girl. After four of their children immigrated to Canada in the early 1950s, the parents followed in 1955 with the rest of the family, including Matth.

Matth showed an unusual interest in art from a very young age. He told one interviewer about drawing on cigarette packages when barely school age. His brother John, of Victoria, B.C., notes that, “Matth was a very gifted artist, and that started already when he was very young, probably ten or twelve.” John says Matth went through two months of elementary school when he first came to Edmonton, followed by junior high, then Grade 10 in another school. Here, he took an art course and quickly caught the attention of Mrs. Job, the art teacher.

“She realized right away that she had somebody special there,” relates John. “He did an oil painting of some sculpture’s face, and when he handed it in, she said, ‘I cannot grade this; I’m going to send it to the university to have them look at it and give you a grade.’ Well, it came back and they said this is amazing; it’s 110 percent. That was the first time he was really given credit for what he could do.”

Not a ‘viable’ job

As in most immigrant families, Matth was expected to work for a living when he left school at sixteen. His heart, however, was in artistic expression, and he learned to work in many different media. Woodcut, pen and ink, oil, mixed media – he became skilled at them all.

John says that he and Matth were very close. “I understood him, but some of the family did not.” Art was not seen as a viable occupation by most people of Matth’s youth. Thus he went to work in a bakery at first. He held other jobs too, but his love for representative art – and music – was strong. He was part of a jazz club, and had a drum set in the family’s basement.

Still, many eyebrows would have been raised when he decided to make art his full-time vocation. His wife, Willy, became the main breadwinner for their life together, since an artist’s income tends to be irregular. However, Matth made a significant name for himself, especially within the Reformed community. In 1966, he and Willy moved to Victoria for about five years, then to Vancouver. The next move brought him to Toronto, where he attended an art school.

“That’s were he created a lot of beautiful work,” says John. Next, Matth fell in love with the Annapolis Valley during a 1980 visit. He and Willy moved again, settling in the village of Canning. In each location, Matth developed a circle of friends who loved and admired his work.

A man of faith

Not only was Matth an excellent artist, he was a distinctively Christian one, and his understanding of faith shines through much of what he created.

Various Christian organizations made use of his talents. Redeemer College near Hamilton invited Matth to serve as Artist in Residence in 1994, and the murals he painted during that stay and during another visit a few years later “are visual anchor points in the school,” according to Phil Irish, Redeemer’s current professor of Art. Justin Cooper, President of Redeemer University from 1994-2009, recalls that Matth also served as a mentor for senior art students, producing an art show of past and current works and even gave a chapel talk. Henk Hultink, director of the Ontario Christian School Teachers Association at the time, arranged for Matth to tour Christian elementary schools and talk to students about doing art as a Christian.

In 2004, Matth created artwork for the 40th anniversary of Citizens for Public Justice. Like many of his pieces, this painting is highly symbolic with its grazing sheep, shepherd with crook, a wine chalice and gentle brook. In another painting, Matth took an unusual approach to a common artistic theme: Jesus and his disciples sitting around a round table.

When Willy died in 2014, Matth’s emotional life lost her stabilizing influence. He was never the same again, although he retained loyal friends to the end. It came on May 16, 2024, in the Kentville hospital.

Matth’s artwork remains in many homes and institutions across Canada. Those who hear of his demise will treasure these works, each piece reminding them of Matth’s distinctive style, insight and personality.