A.K. Prakash, "Impressionism in Canada: A Journey of Rediscovery," Stuttgart, 2015, pages 302, 313
In 1888, Maurice Cullen moved from Montreal to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts. Cullen also pursued his training at Académie Julian, where he encountered fellow Canadian painters George A. Reid, William Brymner and James Wilson Morrice. While in Paris, Cullen met several French Impressionist artists, viewing their exhibitions and absorbing their influence. Cullen exhibited at the Salon in 1895 and was the first Canadian to be offered an associate membership to the Societé nationale des beaux-arts. Despite his growing success in France, the artist chose to return to Montreal that same year. Cullen sought to expose Canadians to Impressionist painting, while adapting his artistic approach to the Canadian landscape. Author A.K. Prakash noted, “Particularly after he returned to Canada, he realized he had to modify the Impressionism he had learned in France to suit the bold colours and defined forms that stood out in the crisp atmosphere of the cold Canadian winter.”
With fixed determination, Cullen sketched outdoors, often while standing in frigid temperatures on snowshoes. The painter would make and prepare his own small painting boards, on which he would sketch on-site. Cullen would then work them up to larger canvases in his studio during the summer months. Later, the same methodology would become the core practice of the artists of the Group of Seven. "Winter, Mont Tremblant" wonderfully exemplifies Cullen’s mastery at capturing the subtle play of sunlight on snow. The Laurentian mountain rises grandly in the distance, deftly rendered in shifting, warm hues. Prakash observed, “He excelled in crisp winter landscapes in the radiant northern light... He was determined to record the texture and varied colours of his country in impasto layers of paint - and no other Impressionist artist did it better.”
