Clarence Gagnon: Untitled (Assisi)

A rare, fresh-to-market painting by Clarence Gagnon

From June to November 1911, Clarence Gagnon stayed in Italy for the third time. Upon his return to his Paris studio located at 9 rue Falguière, the painter wasted no time in transferring to canvas the impressions inspired by his visit to Assisi.[1]

As early as February 1912, Canadian art lovers could admire a view of the Monastery of St. Francis in Assisi at the Fifth Annual Exhibition of the Canadian Art Club in Toronto, and again, in March and April 1912, at the 29th Annual Spring Exhibition of Montreal. In April, at the Salon de la Société national des beaux-arts at the Grand Palais in Paris, Gagnon’s painting on the same theme was noticed by French art critic Léon Saint-Valéry, who appreciated the sensations of “the peace of a soft morning of pale gold and transparent mists.”[2]

The number of paintings by Clarence Gagnon with Assisi as the subject can be counted on one hand. In this respect, the recent appearance of Untitled (Assisi), 1911 on the Canadian art market is exceptional. This work had been kept hidden from public view in the artist’s family for over a century.

The composition is exemplary of the impressionism and japonisme that permeated Gagnon’s art during this period: the delicate treatment of light through lightly coloured notations, the bold, bird’s-eye view of the monastery when the sun is at its zenith, and the plain of Assisi lost in the distance in atmospheric movements of blue, turquoise and pink, where sky and earth merge.

To emphasize the vertiginous space, the painter has ensured that this blurring of forms contrasts sharply with the precision and verticality of the eight cypress trees in the foreground, which rise from the bottom to the top to form a majestic openwork decorative curtain.

[1] After Clarence Gagnon’s visit, his compatriot, the painter A.Y. Jackson, traveled to Assisi in the winter of 1912-1913, as evidenced by Cypress Trees, Assisi, 1912 at the National Gallery of Canada.
[2] Salon de la Société nationale des beaux-arts, Revue des Beaux-arts (Paris), May 1912.

Contributed by Michèle Grandbois, Ph.D., independent researcher, writer and art historian. 

We are delighted to offer this work in our spring 2025 Canadian and International Fine Art auction, alongside two additional works by Gagnon, Lot 332, Misses Olive and Edna and Mrs. Lucile Gagnon, Ste-Pétronille, Ile d’Orléans, 1919 and Lot 333, Etude du Nu.

About the Auction

Our major spring auction of Canadian and International Fine Art features an exceptional collection of important works by noted Canadian and international artists including Frederick Banting, Jack Bush, Clarence Gagnon, William Kurelek, Jean Paul Lemieux, J.W. Morrice, William Perehudoff, Takao Tanabe, Bernard Buffet, Jean Dufy, Francisco Zúñiga, Larry Poons, Jules Olitski, and many more.

The auction is offered online May 8 – 29, 2025.

Previews at our Toronto gallery located at 100 Broadview Avenue, are available:

Wednesday, May 21 from 10 am to 7 pm
Thursday, May 22 from 10 am to 5 pm
Friday, May 23 from 10 am to 5 pm
Saturday, May 24 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Sunday, May 25 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Monday, May 26 from 10 am to 5 pm
Tuesday, May 27 from 10 am to 5 pm
Wednesday, May 28 from 10 am to 5 pm
Thursday, May 29 from 10 am to 12 pm

Or by appointment.

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