Bonsecours Market, St. Paul Street, about 1852 by James Duncan
James Duncan
Bonsecours Market, St. Paul Street, about 1852
watercolour over graphite on paper
signed lower left; titled and dated “circa 1848” on a label on the reverse
15.5 x 24 in ( 39.4 x 61 cm )
Auction Estimate: $8,000.00 - $12,000.00
Price Realized $66,000.00
Sale date: November 27th 2024
Mr. and Mrs. W. Bryan, Ottawa, since 1920s
Claude Gugeon, Ottawa, 1989
Private Collection, Toronto
A.K. Prakash & Associates, Inc., Toronto
Acquired by the present Private Collection, April 2009
James Duncan (1806-1881), "Painter of Montreal", McCord Stewart Museum, Montreal, 2023 as "Bonsecours Market, St. Paul Street", about 1852
Laurier Lacroix and Suzanne Sauvage, "James Duncan (1806-1881), Painter of Montreal", Montreal, 2023, reproduced pages 138-139
This truly exceptional view combines both approaches by offering a broad perspective of St. Paul Street along with all the details of its bustling activity on a business day. The neoclassical elegance of the new Bonsecours Market (built in 1847) by architect William Footner competes with the vernacular architecture of the Bonsecours Chapel, rebuilt in 1773. In this setting, Duncan depicts the activities of a winter market in abundance. The movement of the horse-drawn carriages harmonizes with the vendors, shoppers, delivery workers, and woodcutters. Elegant signs adorn the façades and complete the atmosphere of this lively street.
We extend our thanks to Laurier Lacroix, C.M., art historian, for researching this artwork and for contributing the preceding essay.
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James Duncan
(1806 - 1881)
James D. Duncan, artist and drawing master (b at Coleraine, Ireland 1806, d at Montréal Sept 1881). He emigrated to Canada about 1830, and established himself in Montréal as a professional artist and teacher of drawing.
Duncan is best known as a painter in watercolour. His many works in this medium are landscapes and street scenes which record every aspect of city life. In Montréal he sketched sporting events, parades, fires, market vendors, sleighing and ice-cutting. He also portrayed most of the city's important buildings. Through his brushwork and his use of a subtle range of colours, he captured atmospheric and textural effects. His on-the-spot sketches of figures and groups in action show him to have been an accomplished draftsman. Less frequently, he painted small watercolour portraits.
The few oil paintings attributed to Duncan vary in style and lack the fluidity and fine colour sense seen in his watercolours. Between 1839 and 1878, over 70 of Duncan's compositions were printed as etchings, lithographs or wood engravings. His views were used to illustrate Hochelaga Devicta: The Early History and Present State of the City and Island of Montréal (1839) and to decorate the borders of a Montréal map (1846). The most notable set of single-sheet prints are 6 Montréal views drawn on stone by Duncan and issued in 1843-44. They were the first tint-stone lithographs published in Canada. Duncan also created designs for coinage and for ornamental printing.
Duncan taught drawing at several Montréal schools and gave private lessons. Some pupils copied his works. In 1837 he served as a 1st lieutenant in the Montréal Light Infantry. He was a founding member of the Montreal Society of Artists in 1847 (seeARTISTS' ORGANIZATIONS), exhibited at the Québec Provincial Exhibition, Montréal, 1863-65, at the Art Association of Montreal, 1865-79, the Society of Canadian Artists, 1867-72, and became an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1881.
