Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal
Private Collection, Ontario
Literature
A.K. Prakash, Impressionism in Canada: A Journey of Rediscovery. Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Art Publishers, 2015. p. 321.
In the early 1900s Cullen was exhibiting regularly in Montreal and garnered more significant recognition from critics. He was awarded a bronze medal at the 1904 World’s Fair in St Louis, Missouri; this success motivated Cullen, together with William Brymner, to build a studio in Saint-Eustache, northwest of Montreal. Every year he travelled up and down the Saint Lawrence river between Montreal and Quebec to paint his surroundings. At times he ventured further north to Beaupré and Les Éboulements, capturing the landscape during every season, such as in Winter, Beaupré, 1906. The small town of Beaupré was a destination for some of Cullen’s contemporaries as well, namely Brymner, James Wilson Morrice, and Edmund Morris. Cullen created a completely new vision of the Canadian wilderness, which influenced the next generation of landscape artists including the Group of Seven. A.Y. Jackson praised these works, remarking: “To us [Cullen] was a hero. His paintings of quebec city, from Lévis and along the river are among the most distinguished works produced in Canada.”