Sylvia Daoust died on September 26, 2004, at the age of 102, closing a career spanning most of the 20th century.
Sylvia Daoust died on September 26, 2004, at the remarkable age of 102, in Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec. Her death marked the end of a career that had spanned nearly the entire twentieth century and had helped establish sculpture as a legitimate and respected artistic discipline for women in Quebec.
By the time of her passing, Daoust was widely regarded as one of the pioneering figures of Quebec sculpture, having created numerous public monuments, religious statuary, and portrait busts that remain part of the province's cultural and architectural heritage. Her extraordinary longevity allowed her to witness—and contribute to—dramatic transformations in Quebec's artistic and social landscape, from the conservative Catholic-dominated culture of her youth to the secularized, modern Quebec of the early 2000s.
Her death was noted by Quebec cultural institutions as the loss of one of the last living links to the early generation of professionally trained Quebec sculptors, and retrospectives and institutional recognitions have continued to honor her contributions posthumously, including entries in major museum collections such as the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.