Sold for: $61,250

PROVENANCE
Galerie Bernard Desroches, Montreal
Private Collection, Quebec

LITERATURE
A.K. Prakash, "Marc-Aurèle Fortin (1888-1970): Le peintre poète," Magazin'art, no. 4, Summer 2001, reproduced page 94
Michèle Grandbois, editor, Marc-Aurèle Fortin: The Experience of Colour, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, 2011, page 208

Some artists succeed in revealing some of man’s most profound thoughts through the simplest and most familiar visual data, by depicting everyday life in a particular geographic and sociological environment. In Canada, Marc-Aurèle Fortin’s great talent lay in imbuing the urban and rural landscapes of Quebec with precious secrets, revealing a mind at once innocent and smiling, dreaming and fully human.

-J-R. Ostiguy

Around 1930, Marc-Aurèle Fortin was living in Montreal, while also taking trips into the Quebec countryside, painting towns and rural farming communities. His great affection for this subject is felt in his depiction of quotidian details in La maison brune – the people working the soil, laundry hung on the line to dry and the heavily laden horse-drawn cart rolling up the rutted road. The house, with its dormer windows and double chimneys, is typical of rural Quebec architecture. In the background are Fortin’s beloved elms, under a glowing sky that catches the end-of-the-day sun in pink-tinged clouds. La maison brune is a warm work that consummately captures the peaceful relationship between the Québécois and the land.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars