Famous Fredericton beaver sculpture finds new home in downtown art gallery

When people pass by the white-pillared Beaverbrook Art Gallery starting this weekend, they will be greeted by one of Fredericton's most famous sculptures.

When people pass by the white-pillared Beaverbrook Art Gallery starting this weekend, they will be greeted by one of Fredericton’s most famous sculptures.

Called “The Beavers,” the artwork is a 1,400-kilogram grey limestone carving of a mother and baby beaver, both hunched over logs. Sitting in the entranceway of the museum, the sculpture is visible from the outside through the building’s glass doors. The piece was commissioned by the province in 1959 as a gift to William Maxwell Aitken, known as Lord Beaverbrook, for his 80th birthday.

First installed in Officers’ Square in 1959, the sculpture spent decades braving the elements — and generations of children who climbed atop the carving or sat on the beavers’ stone backs. But it was removed from the downtown park in 2016 after city workers noticed how badly it was damaged. Following a two-week restoration over the summer, it will be presented to the public in its new home on Saturday.

“I mean, it’s just the quintessential Canadian symbol,” John Leroux, manager of collections and exhibitions at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, said in a recent interview. Beavers, he said, are intelligent, and “make things just like Lord Beaverbrook did …. They’re very high-functioning animals.”

Beaverbrook was from Newcastle, which is now part of Miramichi, and went on to become a newspaper publisher, businessman, politician — serving as a British cabinet minister during the two world wars — and University of New Brunswick chancellor. He was also a philanthropist, and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery is one of the many projects he funded.

Acadian artist Claude Roussel carved the piece in his basement in Edmundston, Leroux said.

Roussel is considered a pioneer of modern art in Acadia. A recipient of the Order of Canada and the Order of New Brunswick, he founded and became the first director of the visual arts department and art gallery at Université de Moncton in 1963. He has presented more than 200 exhibitions and created 60 sculptures.

Angela Watson, cultural development officer for Fredericton, said the installation of the carving at Officers’ Square in 1959 included a circular wading pool with the animals sitting on the edge of the water.