Fleurimond is the elder of the children of Adolphe Constantineau and his wife, Delphine Corbeil. He was born in Ville Saint-Michel in Saint-Bernardin-de-Sienne Parish, on the 27th of August, 1905 and was baptised that same day, at Saint-Léonard. His father is market gardener and owns land on the corners of Jarry Street and Saint-Michel Boulevard. His produce is sold principally at the market of Saint-Jean-Baptiste on the corners of Saint-Laurent and Rachel Streets. He developed early proficiency for drawing and his parents are not surprised when he announces, in 1925, his desire to enter the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Montreal just then founded. Being the eldest in the family and their needs for his services being primary, he delivers milk and cream in center-town and makes his way to the School to attend their courses. There, he meets a young Acadian, Emma Roussie, who is studying art and also poses as a model. They rightly marry at Saint-Joseph de Montréal Church on the 11th of February, 1928. A few months later their one and only child is born, Jean, who also willl become a painter.

Emma Roussie died on the 3rd of October, 1929 and their child will be raised by his grand-parents. Fleurimond remarried in 1932 with Marie-Ange Paré who bore five children with him.

Fleurimond will teach at Beaux-Arts under appointment in 1928. For four years, from 1928 to 1931, he will received a bursury of 500.00 dollars from the Provincial Secreteriat. In 1931, he received his diploma from l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The following year he exhibited two paintings at the Spring Salon of the Art Association of Montreal. In 1935, he formed an association with Louis Parent and Armand Filion, sculptors, and Henri Bélisle and Rémi Arbour, artists. They obtained contracts for plaster work for the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Parade. From 1943-44, Fleurimond will assume by himself the direction of the association. The Parade Chariots are made in and old shed on Henri-Julien Street on loan from Montreal for the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Parade. The premises used will later be situated on Bossuet Street in Longue-Pointe. The Fleurimond enterprise provided the Chariots for the Parades, not only for Saint-Jean-Baptiste, but also for the Crey Cup Parade and Santa-Claus Parade on St-Hubert Street and other Parades organised by other towns. That enterprise will provide Chariots up to the year 1969, when national manifestations caused the people to overturn the Chariots in Saint-Jean-Baptiste Parade and that way of organising Parades was abandoned. Fleurimond then teached drawing in numerous schools of Conseil Ecoles  Catholiques de Montreal.

The Fleurimond paintings reflect his love for the the Great Northern Regions of Canada where he travelled 6 times on and off for the next 20 years. His financial wealth will permit him to remain, for long periods of time, not only in the North, but also in Europe, United States, in the Carribeans and even on the Islands of

Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. He is also renowned for his scenes of Old Montreal. His produced works are plentiful. Fleurimond will become one of those landscape-painters, apart from the modernists and automatists. He possessed a rare genius for colour and his paintings demonstrate his talent as an accomplished artist.

Fleurimond Constantineau died on the 15th of March, 1981, at his home in Saint-Viateur d’Outremont. He rests with his parents, at Saint-Léonard.

Text: André Cousineau (2001) Translated by Gilles Constantineau (2001)

Some paintings from Fleurimond