Quebec House in Winter by Albert Henry Robinson

Provenance:
Mayberry Gallery, Winnipeg
Masters Gallery, Calgary
Private Collection, Toronto

During the period when this painting was completed, Robinson was travelling along the St. Lawrence area of Quebec, painting landscapes and his surroundings. The charming home depicted represents quintessential Quebec cottage and village houses of rural Quebec along the St. Lawrence and Laurentians. The glowing dusk sky, coloured green by the light’s reflection off of blanketed snow, is more impressionistic in style and complements the wide brushstrokes of the green siding of the home. While working closely with A.Y. Jackson, the practices of looser brushstrokes, emphasis on light and shadow depicted with colour and simplified forms became part of the artist’s artistic style. Rather than capturing Canadiana through depictions of barren wilderness, Robinson focuses on the dwellings of emerging towns and cities in the early twentieth century, giving life and narrative to the landscape painting tradition in Canada.