Fishnet and Pier, Santiago de Cuba by James Wilson Morrice

Provenance:
William Scott & Sons, Montreal, 1924
Robert B. Morrice (brother of artist), before 1942
Stevens Art Gallery, Montreal, October 1943
Kaspar Gallery,Toronto, circa 1997
Private Collection, Ottawa
Private Collection, Toronto

Exhibited:
"J.W. Morrice", Stevens Art Gallery, Montreal, October, 1943

Literature:
'Paintings by Morrice at Stevens Gallery', "The Gazette", 16 October, 1943

The turquoise water in this sketch immediately evokes the Caribbean Sea, a region that Morrice visited at least twice, but such a frank piece of turquoise water is, so far, unique. The sketches and drawings done in Cuba and Jamaica in the Spring of 1915 do not show any water. Still mourning the recent loss of his parents, the artist focused his attention on the urban aspects of the island, coloured houses or public parks, always with little figures of local people. In Trinidad, in the spring of 1921, he brought only his watercolour kit.

This lovely little sketch is a delightful surprise, especially the delicate fishnet entirely drawn in pencil on the top of the wet paint, as if the artist had wished to attenuate the blinding effect of his bright colour. The panel had no title; after looking at images of Cuba, old and new, the search was narrowed to the area of Santiago, which Morrice visited. If many pages of his Sketchbook #10 (MMFA) depict Santiago, none relates to this particular sketch. Fortunately, old postcards and recent photographs are very helpful.

But the definitive proof of the subject came when the back of the sketch was examined: unlike almost all known pochades painted by Morrice after 1894-95, it is not painted on a wood panel, but on a heavy piece of fiberboard; two items were mechanically printed with the same ink: a big digit “3" and, at bottom left, something that was hard to decipher. There is another mysterious stamp on a fiberboard panel, a study for the MMFA canvas "Cirque, Santiago de Cuba" (Private Collection). When the images of the two backs are put side by side, the partial stamp on one panel perfectly completes the other, revealing the well-known mark of the famous Parisian firm of "Lefranc & Cie, marchands de couleurs". By the beginning of the twentieth century, it had branches in many countries, including Cuba, and it still operates worldwide as "Lefranc & Bourgeois". The dimensions of the resulting full panel correspond roughly to a “No. 3 Marine” standard format. We presume that Morrice had run out of wood panels: at least one sketch, "House in Santiago" (MMFA), has a view of a local park on the back. The large Lefranc fiberboard panel, cut in two, gave him two panels in his preferred size, which he used for two totally unrelated subjects, but in the same location.

We extend our thanks to Lucie Dorais, Canadian art historian and author of "J.W. Morrice" (National Gallery of Canada, 1985), for contributing the preceding essay.