signed lower left
11 × 12.75 in (27.9 × 32.4 cm)
(including Buyer's Premium)
Private Collection
Thomas R. Lee, Albert H. Robinson ‘The Painter’s Painter’, Montreal, 1956, unpaginated, see “Chaudière in Spate”
Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Albert Henry Robinson left Canada to pursue academic training in Paris in 1903, where he studied at the Académie Julian under William-Adolphe Bouguereau and at the École des beaux-arts. Having received formal European training, Robinson would remain faithful to his Canadian roots, returning to paint the rural landscapes of Ontario and Quebec for the remainder of his career alongside Clarence Gagnon, Edwin Holgate, and A.Y. Jackson.
With the support of two patrons in 1907, Robinson relocated to Montreal, where he established his studio and met with prominent artists William Brymner and Maurice Cullen. Robinson exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts from 1909 to 1933 and then with the Canadian Group of Painters, of which he was a founding member. Robinson was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1920, the same year in which he participated as a guest artist at the inaugural exhibition of the Group of Seven in Toronto.
Beginning in 1921, Robinson made annual sketching trips in late winter and early spring along the Saint Lawrence below Quebec City. This painting, Spring Frechette, Chaudière River, would have been made during one of these early trips, possibly accompanied by A.Y. Jackson. The oil sketch, which is a preparatory work for a larger canvas, illustrates the shift from winter to spring, with bare trees and melting snow. Robinson also made annual trips to the north shore throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, such as the picturesque Beaupré and Charlevoix counties, including Saint-Tite-des-Caps, Baie-Saint- Paul, Les Éboulements, Murray Bay (now La Malbaie), Saint-Fidèle and Saint-Siméon.
