La Fiacre, Rue Champlain, Quebec City by Joseph-Charles Franchère

Provenance:
Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal
A.K. Prakash & Associates, Inc., Toronto
Victor Gordin, Toronto
A.K. Prakash & Associates, Inc., Toronto
Acquired by the present Private Collection, March 2001

Literature:
A.K. Prakash, “Canadian Art‒Selected Masters from Private Collections”, Toronto, 2003, reproduced page 67

Joseph‒Charles Franchère belongs to the generation of French‒Canadian artists born during the 1870s who would make their mark on the Canadian scene at the end of the 19th century. Franchère established his reputation in the early 1890s with a contract for decorating the Notre‒Dame‒du‒Sacré‒Coeur chapel in Notre‒ Dame de Montréal Church. He then studied in Paris at both the Colarossi Studio and at the Académie Julian for several years, and was a pupil of painter and sculptor Jean‒Léon Gérôme. He returned to his native Montreal in 1890 to accept a commission to execute the principal paintings of the Sacred Heart Chapel of Notre‒Dame Church, which soon led to further commissions.

Painted by Franchère in 1899, “Le Fiacre” depicts Quebec City’s most charming street both then and now, Rue Champlain. Made of cobblestones and lined with historic stone buildings, it is one of North America’s oldest commercial streets. The title translates to "the cab", referring to the horse and carriage in the foreground that is transporting a well‒to‒do couple. Franchère depicts the famous downward‒sloping street from the base of the Escaliers Casse‒Cou (The Breakneck Stairs), the quintessential vantage point used for paintings and photographs in order to capture the charm of the area.

Shortly after “Le Fiacre” was completed, Franchère became an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1902, exhibiting with the Art Association of Montreal, further cementing his standing in the milieu of Canadian artistic circles.