Percé, 1925

Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal Private Collection, Vancouver

The sea and coast were among Arthur Lismer’s favourite landscape subjects. His depictions of turbulent seashores and dramatic skies harkened back to his early studies of John Constable and the Romantic painters. Lismer worked from both Canadian coasts throughout his career, and had lived in Nova Scotia from 1916 to 1919. There he was commissioned to capture scenes of the Halifax harbour with Navy vessels from the First World War. Following a return to Toronto, his position as vice-principal at the Ontario College of Art allowed Lismer to go on numerous sketching expeditions during the summers. In August of 1925, Lismer travelled to the region of the lower St. Lawrence River, along with A.Y. Jackson and the renowned ethnologist Marius Barbeau. The Gaspé region offered a multitude of ideal painting subjects for Lismer, and the artist’s output on the trip was abundant. "Percé" wonderfully exemplifies Lismer’s Group period "en plein air" sketches, with its fresh immediacy and vigorous, painterly brushstrokes. The fishermen on the coast focus on their work, their forms emphasized by the crystal blue of the sea behind them. The unmistakable Percé Rock formation looms above them, filling the top half of the picture with its distinctive silhouette. Lismer has efficiently captured the effect of the hot summer sun bearing down with full force on the iconic landmark.