Winter Scene

Private Collection, Montreal By descent to a Private Collection, Montreal, 1954 By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto

Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Germain Lefebvre, Janine Leroux-Guillaume et al., "Marc-Aurèle Fortin: peintre-graveur, 1888-1970", Montreal, 1983, page 76 Colin S. MacDonald, "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume 1: A-F", 5th Edition, Ottawa, 1997

Born in Sainte-Rose, Marc-Aurèle Fortin’s early artistic training came at home under the tutelage of artists including Ludger Larose and Edmond Dyonnet before his studies would take him to Chicago, New York, Boston and, later, to France. It was after a brief trip to France in 1920 that Fortin began to work full-time as a painter and to show his work, which included scenes of the island of Montreal, predominantly rural at the time, and of his birthplace Sainte-Rose, north of the island. During the summers, he travelled to Quebec City, Île d’Orléans and the Charlevoix region, sketching and painting houses and rural scenes. These vibrant works that capture the charm of small-town Quebec are what the artist became best known for in his career. Fortin appreciated Quebec history, the life of the rural villages and landscape, saying "Just like the French, we must excel in landscape". Author Germain Lefebvre describes the artist’s range of Quebec subjects: “From countryside to city, he painted the peaceful roads of St. Rose, his birthplace, the mountains of Piedmont and the fishermen boats in the Gaspé. He witnessed the strong progress of urbanization: a network of railways in the district of Hochelaga, construction of the Jacques- Cartier bridge and the maritime port of Montreal." In this enchanting oil painting depicting a Quebec village in winter, Fortin skilfully rendered his varied and decorative colour palette, demonstrated in the yellow, pink and orange houses, as well as the blue, green and grey landscape that is covered in a blanket of snow. As with the painter’s most celebrated work, any presence of darkness is overpowered by colour. “Winter Scene” illustrates one of Fortin’s preferred subjects: the nocturnal winter scene. With the grey ground visible between the vibrant pigments, this painting likely depicts a scene at dusk. The distinctive high-contrast colour palette with a grey background was adopted by Fortin in the late 1930s, known as his ‘black period’ and ‘grey period’. After an inspirational year-long sojourn in France between 1934 and 1935, the artist returned to Sainte-Rose and began experimenting with the application of pure colours onto a black or grey surface. Using a support of wood, canvas or metal, Fortin painted a thick layer of black or grey pigment, which he left to dry during a period of time before painting his subject in large brushstrokes dipped in vivid colours. By deliberately leaving the black paint of the first layer visible in certain areas, the artist achieved luminous and brilliant colour juxtapositions. Fortin was particularly talented and innovative in his use of colour throughout his prolific career. Following the black and grey periods, he mixed watercolour with black pastels and pencils, which created moodier, monochromatic compositions. Late in his career, Fortin discovered casein, which excited him due to its similarities to watercolour but with more opacity. In 1963, a retrospective show of Fortin’s work was held at the National Gallery of Canada. In the exhibition catalogue, Jean-René Ostiguy describes the artist’s uniquely colourful and pleasing style: “After his trip to Europe, when his style came close to resembling that of the Group of Seven, he succeeded in preserving a quality of expression belonging to the people... Fortin oscillated between decorative imagery and Fauvism. When he was at his best, he mingled the two...”.