PROFILE: Artist Marie Antionette Branchaud

Image Credit: North Dakota Memories Collection, North Dakota State Library

A river with two boats runs along the foreground of the painting. In the center there is a green grass area with many trees. Along the back row is a line of stores. There are four buildings starting with the National City Bank on the left. Branchaud's general store, Hardware Store, and Pembina Post Office follow from left to right.

Marie Antoinette Branchaud was born in 1907 in Cavalier, ND, to Raoul and Ernestine Branchaud. She and her sisters attended boarding school in St.Boniface, Manitoba, where she studied music in addition to regular studies.

Antoinette was educated as a nurse. She married Andre (Tony) Schwob, a folk artist. She began painting memories of her life and her family's life in Pembina and Cavalier, North Dakota. Antoinette's paintings are well known in the folk art circles; her paintings hang in New York folk art galleries and are available on online auctions.

The paintings at the Pembina County Historical Museum were donated by Antoinette's niece Charlotte Vogel of New York City in 2001. 

The artist's father Raoul Branchaud owned the general store in Pembina before moving to Cavalier to open a jewelry store in 1903. In the painting, the store seems to be on Cavalier Street facing the Red River.