Additional Images

Provenance:

Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal, QC
Private Collection, Ontario
By descent to the present Private Collection, Ontario

Note:

The death of his father in 1933 meant that Fortin, for the first time in his life, had access to a large sum of money. He would return to the family home in Sainte-Rose, the town where he was born and raised, to establish a studio in the attic above the former stables. After he had settled himself back home, he departed for a five-month trip to Europe, returning to Sainte-Rose in early 1934, and would paint and sketch the local scenes. Fortin drew inspiration from rural Quebec, seeing these vistas as important in fostering a national identity, one which needed to develop apart from both American and European influences. In the spring of 1940, the family home at Sainte-Rose was sold, and Fortin began to rove the province of Quebec.

Fortin, unlike the Impressionists to whom he was often compared, was known to carefully block out his compositions and rather than work alla prima, he often finished his paintings in the studio. Fortin saw painting as a building up of contrasting layers, often working from dark backgrounds and progressing to lighter and brighter colours.

1924-1950 was a period of great visibility for Fortin in the Montreal art world, with critics – most prominently Albert Laberge – describing his art as “bold, personal, original and showed proof of a vigorous effort to avoid conventional and worn-out styles.”[1] 

[1] Esther Trépanier, “The Critical Reception of Marc-Aurèle Fortin,” in Marc-Aurèle Fortin: The Experience of Colour, ed. Michèle Grandbois. (Quebec: Musée des beaux-arts du Quebec, 2011), 190.