Dennis Reid, “Edwin H. Holgate”, Ottawa, 1976, page 22
A landscape painter, portraitist, muralist, printmaker and illustrator, Edwin Holgate most often found his subjects in the province of Quebec. Holgate began his art education at the Art Association of Montreal studying under William Brymner and in 1912 he went to Paris where he studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. He was in Russia at the outbreak of the First World War and returned to Canada where he enlisted with the 5th Canadian Division Artillery (1916-19). He married Mary Frances Rittenhouse in 1920 and returned to Paris to continue his studies. The couple moved to Montreal in 1922, where Holgate opened a studio. He enjoyed the friendship of A.Y. Jackson, Clarence Gagnon, Mabel May, Lilias Torrance Newton, Randolph Hewton, and many of the younger artists who became known as the Beaver Hall Hill Group.
Despite living in the city, Holgate loved the outdoors and was always interested in depicting the wilderness of the Laurentians. He was a good skier and took regular trips to various parts of Quebec, often In the company of Jackson. On skis, the two artists visited many of the well-known areas of Charlevoix and the Laurentians. “Laurentian Landscape” is a bright and cheerful winter landscape, providing a view of snow-covered mountains. The deep snow and absence of any roads suggest that the artist could have visited the location on skis. Curved, fluid lines fill the composition, outlining mountain slopes, rocks, trees and sparse clouds. The sun shines onto the scene, creating a warm glow on the snow and shadows behind two large rocks.
Holgate built a cabin at Lac Tremblant in 1925, but later sold the property to purchase a nine-acre piece of land in Morin Heights, where he would eventually settle with his wife in 1946. Author Dennis Reid describes the artist’s Laurentian paintings as “among the most sensual of his works, they reveal across every inch of their surfaces the long hours of concentration that have brought to them the gentle glow of life.”
