signed lower right
22 × 28 in (55.9 × 71.1 cm)
Dominion Gallery, Montreal
Private Collection, Toronto
Alan Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal
Private Collection, Montreal
41st Spring Exhibition, Art Association of Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 27 March-20 April 1924, no. 93 as Au Marché de Bonsecours
54th Spring Exhibition, Art Association of Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 18 March-11 April 1937, no. 129 as Winter, Bonsecours Market
Born in Belleville, Ontario, in 1883, James Lillie Graham moved to Montreal as a child and studied under William Brymner before pursuing further training in London, Paris and Antwerp. He returned to Canada around 1910, establishing his Montreal address at 66 Jacques-Cartier Square, the very location depicted in Winter, Bonsecours Market. The painting exemplifies Graham’s contribution to Canadian Impressionism, capturing the lively atmosphere of Montreal’s main public marketplace on a winter’s day. Viewed from the west side of Jacques-Cartier Square, the scene looks east along St. Paul Street toward Bonsecours Market and Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Church. Shoppers gather among merchants, some transporting their purchases by sleigh while others pull heavily laden sledges through the snow. The absence of motor vehicles suggests a scene dating to the early twentieth century, or possibly earlier.
Graham was based in Montreal for the remainder of his career and he exhibited alongside artists including Maurice Cullen, Laura Muntz and Robert Harris. He was also an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy. The artist went missing in the Gatineau Hills in August 1965 and was never found. His work is represented in several major Canadian public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.
