Born to a family of English and Irish heritage in Quebec City, Edmund Alleyn studied at the École des beaux-arts with Jean Paul Lemieux. In 1955, the young artist won the Grand Prix aux concours artistiques de la Province de Québec and a grant from the Royal Society of Canada. Later that year he moved to France, where he explored lyrical abstraction influenced by Paul-Émile Borduas and Jean-Paul Riopelle. This 1956 canvas, which would have been painted in Europe, demonstrates the strong influence of these Automatiste painters, in its thick paint application and expressive brushwork. The late fifties represent one of several distinct periods of Alleyn, as the artist’s style was constantly evolving and cannot be assigned to a single category. In the early 1960s, Alleyn’s colour palette brightened and his paintings drew inspiration from West Coast Native art.
