PROVENANCE
Estate of the Artist
Winchester Galleries, Victoria
Collection of Laurie Guthrie, Edmonton

LITERATURE
Philip Fry, Charles Gagnon, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1978, page 67, reproduced page 66

By the time La ferme de A.T. Décédé was painted in 1960, Charles Gagnon was a rising star in Montreal and New York art circles. Having just graduated from the New York School of Interior Design, he immersed himself in the city’s avant-garde movement and undertook a photographic exploration of the city, captivated by its architectural charm. Many of these influences would translate into his subsequent paintings, first in the Tablet and Wall series and then in his noteworthy Landscape series.

La ferme de A.T. Décédé was part of the Landscape series’ “first grouping.” Philip Fry wrote in the catalogue introduction for Gagnon’s 1978 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibition, “The works in the first group, predominantly brown, beige, cream, pale yellow and grey, present natural scenes which sometimes include buildings or other man-made things, the whole being viewed from a fairly long distance, no human figures are included.” Judging by the title, this landscape is perhaps a farm or yard, with tree shapes, black vertical lines and the decipherable letters A and T. La ferme de A.T. Décédé is a fine example from Gagnon’s Landscape series, in which he skilfully interwove opposing visual realities though forms and signs.

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