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Cafe Clare St, Servan (Night Effect) by Albert Henry Robinson

Artwork by Albert Henry Robinson, Cafe Clare St, Servan (Night Effect)

Albert H. Robinson
Cafe Clare St, Servan (Night Effect)

oil on board
signed and dated 1911 lower left
8.75 x 10.5 ins ( 22.2 x 26.7 cms )

Auction Estimate: $15,000.00$10,000.00 - $15,000.00

Price Realized $18,000.00
Sale date: June 1st 2016

Provenance:
Private Collection, Toronto
Exhibited:
“Royal Canadian Academy of Arts”, 1916 [under original title, “Leaving Port, St. Malo (Night Effect)”], cat. no. 186
Literature:
“Albert H. Robinson: Retrospective Exhibition”, The Art Gallery of Hamilton, 1955, unpaginated
Thomas Roche Lee and Albert H. Robinson: “The Painter's Painter”, Montreal, 1956
“Catalogue of the Thirty-fourth Annual Exhibition of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in the Victoria Memorial Museum, Ottawa, November the Twenty-eighth, 1912”, Ottawa, 1912, page 17
Known for bright and colourful scenes of Quebec villages and towns, this nighttime cafe scene is a unique subject for the artist. Using muted tones rather than his typical bright oil paints, Robinson creates a moody atmosphere while still maintaining the charm of the French cafe scene in St. Severn, a town situated in western France, two miles fro the ferry port of St. Malo. While studying at the Academie Julian in Paris, and later at the École des Beaux-Arts from 1903 until 1905, Robinson traveled France during and after his studies.

The greys of the buildings and moody sky make for seemingly rainy or damp conditions of the street only highlighting the warm glow from the cafe. Red curtains in the cafe window contrast with the dreary exterior setting inviting prospective patrons, bundled and huddled outside the windows, into the cozy space.

In an address given by Robert Wakeham Pilot at the opening of the retrospective exhibition of Robinson's work, held at the Art Gallery of Hamilton in 1955, Pilot explains, “we see in these canvases how well Mr. Robinson has solved this problem. The simplicity of their facture could be easily misunderstood...Ignoring the trivial, he shows us the essential.” Rather than deliver scenes rich in finite detail, Robinson creates works full of atmosphere and character, distinct to the subject matter. Simplicity and attention to capturing character through the essential elements of the scenes while using impressionistic colour palettes and painterly technique was his focus.


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Albert Henry Robinson
(1881 - 1956) Canadian Group of Painters, RCA

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Albert Henry Robinson (RCA) was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1881. Robinson studied in Hamilton with John S. Gordon and left for Paris in 1903. He continued his training at the Julian Academy with Bouguereau and Bachet, and then with Ferrier at the L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts. During his time there he travelled to Normandy and Corsica. After returning to Hamilton, John S. Gordon hired him as an assistant and Robinson exhibited his work for the first time in 1906. In 1910 he met and befriended A.Y. Jackson. Between 1918 and 1933 Robinson travelled along the shores of the St. Lawrence and in the Laurentians painting many landscapes, which constitute the bulk of his work.

Robinson was a member of the Pen and Pencil Club of Montreal and the Arts Club of Montreal. He was also elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1920, the same year in which he participated as a guest artist at the inaugural exhibition of the Group of Seven in Toronto. He also was a founding member of the Beaver Hall Group in 1920 and the Canadian Group of Painters in 1933.

Robinson's work is in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Art Gallery of Hamilton; McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, among others.