Près de Café à Montréal, Rue Wolfe

Private Collection, Edmonton, circa 1970s By descent to the present Private Collection, Edmonton

Born in Sainte-Rose, just north of Montreal, Marc-Aurèle Fortin studied fine art locally under Ludger Larose and Edmond Dyonnet. Fortin moved to the United States for further study at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he discovered the works of Jean-François Millet, Claude Monet and Mary Cassatt. In 1914, he returned to Montreal, holding various jobs and painting in his spare time. Drawing inspiration from his urban surroundings, Fortin depicted Montreal’s Wolfe Street in his formative period, and returned to the same subject years later. A recurring theme in Fortin’s oeuvre is the relationship between humanity and nature, with figures, buildings, and towns played against natural elements such as trees and mountains. With the French Impressionists as a formative influence, Fortin was preoccupied with the rapid industrialization and urban growth in North America during the early 20th century. "Près de Café à Montréal, Rue Wolfe" is a wonderful example of the artist’s urban scenes. Painted in Fortin’s distinctive mature style, bright colours have been laid down in thick strokes on a black ground layer. The work is boldly modernist in its execution. The paint application is made up of a mosaic of short brushstrokes, and black outlines lend the painting a stylized, graphic quality. Fortin was a gifted colourist, and here he contrasts the red of the window frames with complimentary green shutters. The warm, colourful hues of the buildings are set off by the brilliant blue of the sky. Fortin’s painting serves as a fascinating documentation of Montreal’s history, as this row of Wolfe Street buildings no longer exists. "Près de Café à Montréal, Rue Wolfe" features the stone masonry and the specific architecture of a working-class neighbourhood since lost to development.