Lot 62
MARC-AURELE DE FOY SUZOR-COTE, R.C.A.
Additional Images
Provenance:
Private Collection, Florida
Literature:
Laurier Lacroix, Suzor-Cote: light and matter, Musee du Quebec, Quebec, 2002, page 269, illustrated.
Note:
Marc-Aurele de Foy Suzor-Coté (1869-1937) born in Arthabaska, Quebec worked in oil, pastel, charcoal, coloured chalk and pencil. His mastery of sculpture is seen in Le Portageur, executed in 1922. It is an example of a group of sculptures by Suzor-Coté that highlighted the difficult living conditions of the French-Canadian habitants and in particular the coureur des bois.
Laurier Lacroix, notes that “The theme of the coureur des bois carrying a pack on his back first appears in Suzor-Coté’s work as an illustration in the novel, Maria Chapdelaine (1916). There, François Paradis is shown in a winter setting at the edge of a forest, dragging a sledge and bent over with the weight of his load. In the sculpture, Le Portageur (cat.114) (fig.107), the coureur des bois packs on his back all the contents of his canoe to bypass river rapids.”