La Mare, Baie St. Paul, 1920 , 1920

Dominion Gallery, Montreal Watson Art Galleries, Montreal G. Blair Laing Limited, Toronto Private Collection, Toronto

Hélène Sicotte and Michèle Grandbois, Clarence Gagnon, 1881-1942: Dreaming the Landscape, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, 2006, pages 352 and 140 for the related canvas reproduced in colour, The Pond in October, c.1921, (National Gallery of Canada) René Boissay, Clarence Gagnon, Ottawa, 1988, pages 145-46

Clarence Gagnon spent five years in Baie St. Paul from 1919-1924. He had spent time painting in the region before, but he returned this time to settle with his second wife, Lucile Rodier, whom he had married in June 1919. Lucile Rodier has played a vital role in the legacy of her husband’s artworks, as the labels affixed to the reverse of Gagnon’s pochades are a mark of authenticity that have long assisted both collectors and scholars in the identification of the details of Gagnon’s works. While Baie St. Paul remained a rural and somewhat isolated place, with the advent of the opening of the railway line linking the area to Quebec City and Montreal, the region became more accessible and enticed many painting friends to visit Gagnon. These visitors included A.Y. Jackson, Randolph Hewton, Mabel May, Edwin Holgate, Albert Robinson and Lilias Torrance Netwon, who often joined Gagnon on outdoor painting expeditions. When undertaking these excursions, Gagnon often travelled on skis in the winter and on foot in the summer, always with his paint box, “Swiss bag” and sketchbook in tow. “La Mare, Baie St. Paul”, executed in 1920, marks a change in both materials and preparations that cement Gagnon’s position as one of Canada’s greatest colourists. The chromatic and formal harmony which dominates in this work may be the result of new techniques of paint preparation that Gagnon had adopted on his return to Quebec in 1919, as the artist began experimenting with various painting preparations which involved grinding his own pigments. Boissay notes that “the grinding of colors is a long process and requires considerable energy; however, Gagnon found that it allowed him to be a more complete artist in that he was involved in every creative step of his art. Furthermore, he was able to achieve purer and subtler tones.” This pochade, “La Mare, Baie St. Paul” is a sketch for the canvas entitled, “The Pond in October”, within the permanent collection of The National Gallery of Canada. “The Pond in October” was executed in 1921, and this sketch is one of two pochades, both entitled “La Mare, Baie St. Paul”, which Lucile Rodier has recorded within the Gagnon inventory.