Watson Art Galleries, Montreal
Private Collection, Toronto
Exhibited
“Robert W. Pilot”, Watson Art Galleries, Montreal, 1949, no. 11
Robert Pilot succeeded his stepfather, Maurice Cullen, in the school of Impressionist painting in Quebec. Cullen was known as the Father of Canadian Impressionism, an important figure in the Quebec art world, and took Pilot as an apprentice at his studio. Subsequently, Pilot was befriended and taught by William Brymner at the Royal Canadian Academy and received further training at the Art Association of Montreal. After serving in the army from 1916-1919, Pilot returned to re-enroll in Brymner’s classes. Soon after, he was extended the honour of being a guest exhibitor in the inaugural exhibition of the Group of Seven at the Art Gallery of Toronto in 1920. He was joined by fellow Montrealers Randolph S. Hewton and Albert Robinson. This promising start to the young artist’s career marked Pilot as a significant contributor to the new school of Canadian landscape painting. However, as A.K. Prakash remarks, Pilot was similar to Cullen in that he, “preferred to paint inhabited places rather than the untamed wilderness, so he differed philosophically from the group’s nationalist approach to art.”
Pilot’s poetic compositions share the same search for identity that motivated J.W. Morrice, Clarence Gagnon and Albert Robinson - his Quebec predecessors and counterparts. Pilot preferred to paint the landscape of Quebec, which he often frequented, recording the local conditions of the time and of people co-existing with nature. “He generally excluded the new world from his record – there is, for example, a noticeable absence of automobiles in his compositions,” notes Prakash. “Rather, his paintings convey a precise image of a world that was soon to disappear.” “Place d’Armes, Quebec” was executed in 1949 and exhibited that same year at Watson Art Galleries. Its warmth and gentle brushstrokes are synonymous with the celebrated painter’s ability to depict the Quebec landscape with great charm and artistry.
