The Ferry, Quebec, 1919

Dominion Gallery, Montreal Galerie d’art Michel Bigué, St-Sauveur Private Collection, Toronto

Eds. Rosalind Pepall and Brian Foss, “Edwin Holgate”, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, 2005, reproduced page 103

Born in 1892 in Ontario, Edwin Holgate later moved with his family to Jamaica, before settling in Westmount, Montreal in his childhood years. Showing a talent and passion for art, Holgate enrolled at the Art Association of Montreal when he was thirteen years old. Holgate studied under William Brymner and Maurice Cullen, developing a keen sense of contrast and compositional arrangement. Holgate then studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris where he was exposed to international artists and further advanced his practice. Holgate enlisted in the military during the First World War and carried his sketchbook wherever his postings brought him in Europe. Upon returning to Montreal in 1919 he married Mary Frances Rittenhouse. The new couple travelled to Paris in 1920 and lived abroad for two more years before returning to Canada. During this period Holgate pursued a refined practice and found a renewed sense of identity, akin to the many service men and women who had returned from overseas. “The Ferry, Quebec”, an early work by Holgate, exhibits parallels to James Wilson Morrice in both subject matter and execution. Viewed from a distance, a lady and children play along the banks of the shore as a ferry chugs towards Quebec City. The viewer observes this scene slightly from above, absorbing both the natural and urban environments with a focus on the soft blue of the St. Lawrence River. A picturesque landscape, Holgate balances the dynamic energy in the urban centre beyond with the calm respite of the outer banks. Executed with a loose handling akin to both Brymner and Morrice, “The Ferry, Quebec” provides a glimpse of Holgate’s acute sensitivities to colour and atmosphere, which develop fully in his mature body of work.