Indian Church, Tadoussac, Quebec, 1947

Private Collection, Montreal By descent to the present Private Collection, Ontario

Evelyn Walters, The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian Modernist Painters, Toronto, 2005, page 23

Nora Collyer embarked on many sketching trips throughout Quebec as a student with Maurice Cullen, who was a strong influence on her work. Evelyn Palmer writes that her “technique is never harsh and is remarkable for its shapes, rich colour, and soft rhythms. Rarely figurative, her favourite subjects are flowers, woods, riverscapes, old houses, churches and villages.” Collyer’s double-sided oil “Indian Church, Tadoussac” embodies a pleasing ‘soft rhythm’ in the chapel’s curving roof and the slanted gravestones on the lawn of the foreground. The painting depicts the Tadoussac Chapel, Canada’s oldest wooden church, built in 1747. Because it was constructed by the Jesuit missionaries in their attempt to convert the Montagnais to Christianity, it is also known as the Indians' Chapel, as it is referenced by Collyer. Collyer may have travelled to the town of Tadoussac on a sketching trip or for a summer holiday. The Quebec village dates back as far as Jacques Cartier's September 1535 arrival to the American continent, and served as the first fur trading post in Canada. Tadoussac has been a popular vacation destination since the mid 1800s, for residents of Quebec and abroad.