Baie St. Paul, 1924

Arthur Leggett Fine Arts & Antiques, Toronto Peter Ohler Fine Arts, Vancouver Private Collection, Toronto

Hélène Sicotte and Michèle Grandbois, Clarence Gagnon, 1881-1942: Dreaming the Landscape, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City, 2006, page 136

Following the First World War, Gagnon moved to Baie St. Paul, recently married to his second wife, Lucile Rodier, in 1919. Marking a short but prolific period for the artist, the rural region offered the artist infinite seasonal landscapes to capture. From 1919-1924, before moving to France, Gagnon took advantage of the newly accessible area, thanks in part to the recently constructed rail line connecting Montreal and Quebec City to Baie St. Paul, and produced numerous sketches, paintings and print works of the area. During this time, A.Y. Jackson, Albert Henry Robinson, Edwin Holgate, Mabel May and Lilias Torrance joined him at various times to join in sketching trips across the region. Gagnon experimented with a variety of paints and techniques while in Baie St. Paul, as he was dissatisfied with the quality of materials after the war, and often hand-ground custom pigments. “Baie St. Paul” (1924) displays the artist’s new techniques: a smooth monochromatic green palette accented with decorative effects of the central tree’s changing leaves.