Jonathan Wener likes to joke that most people know him primarily as “a collector of buildings.” But what most don’t know about the founder/chairman of the Montreal-based, mega real-estate firm Candarel Group is that for more than 50 years he has also been collecting the artworks of a relatively unknown Canadian master, William Raphael.

Raphael — né Israel Rafalsky — just happens to be Wener’s great-great-grandfather.

Wener, 75, had long wished to give Raphael his proper due. And now he has.

On Wednesday at Le 9e, Wener will be presiding over the book launch of William Raphael: Life & Work by Pierre-Olivier Ouellet and published by the Art Canada Institute. An exquisitely assembled volume, it offers not only a stunning showcase of Raphael’s depictions of urban life in Montreal but also majestic rural landscapes set around this province. It was Wener’s perseverance that led to the book’s creation.

Born in Nakel, Prussia in 1833, Raphael grew up in a Jewish household and studied art briefly in Berlin before moving to Montreal at the age of 19.

Wener admits it was somewhat cheeky of Raphael to assume the name of the famed Renaissance artist, but his chutzpah notwithstanding, it did foreshadow his career as a creator of such a diverse body of work focused on the people and the places of his new world.

Wener concedes he knew next to nothing about Raphael while growing up.

“My parents had a few of his paintings in the house and my grandparents had quite a few more, but, honestly, I wasn’t that inquisitive until I was about 23 and my grandmother was turning 90,” recalls Wener.

“I went to the National Gallery in Ottawa, where I saw his painting from 1866, from behind the Bonsecours Market. It was prominently displayed. I was really taken by it and was suddenly able to relate it to all the paintings we had at home........

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