Additional Images

Provenance:

Watson Art Galleries, Montreal, QC
Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal, QC
Private Collection, Calgary, AB

Note:

In The Stream in Beaupré, P.Q, Cullen paints a quiet winter pastoral. As Crystal S. Parsons writes, “Cullen’s Canadian landscapes differed from those of his artistic predecessors. They were not allegorical or historical records but, like the French Impressionists, Cullen strove to paint what he saw in front of him with truth to particular aspects of nature, especially the ephemeral effects of light.” [1]

Indeed, Cullen’s mastery of the light and colour are on full display in The Stream in Beaupré, P.Q. The artist uses a muted grey-mauve tone to capture the diffused glow of early dawn or late afternoon, contrasted against the vibrant blues of the snow in shadow, untouched by the veiled rays of the watery winter sun.

William Watson, Cullen’s friend and long-time dealer, remarked that the artist made a long and special study of winter: “Cullen loved the joyous flashes of sunlight, the glow of snow, the gleam of ice, the tumult of the freed river in the springtime, and he set down his impressions with an infectious gusto. He taught us to see beauty where we had only thought of cold.” [2]

[1] Crystal S. Parsons, Maurice Cullen and His Circle, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 9.
[2] William R. Watson, “Retrospective: Recollections of a Montreal Art Dealer”, Toronto, 1974, chapter 4 (Maurice Cullen), 30-39.