 His father, Charles-Arsène Beau, born in Belleville, east of Paris, France, in 1823, arrived in New York City in 1848, and settled in Montreal in 1858, where he lived until his death in 1894.He was a cook and restaurant manager at restaurant "Beau" frequented regularly by painter Edmond Dyonnet according to his mémoire.His father met and married his mother, Marguerite-Clémentine Hupé, a 21-year-old Montréal woman sometime before 1851.