Montreal man spends 50 years tracking down his ancestor's lost paintings

Jonathan Wener has spent 50 years scouring the art world for the lost paintings of his great-great-grandfather, William Raphael.

The 19th-century Montreal painter is best known for his portraits of — French settlers who worked the land — offering little windows into a lost way of life: a woman with a white frilly bonnet washing clothes in a wooden bucket; the Bonsecours Market bustling with shoppers hauling straw baskets against a wintry background.

The scenes are treasured by knowledgeable collectors and art historians alike.

But Wener says his great-great-grandfather never got the public recognition he deserved — and he's on a mission to bring his work back to the forefront of Canadian art history.

"I think he was cheated," Wener said.

Bonsecours Market (1880) is one of William Raph