Sold for: $10,000

PROVENANCE
Galerie l'art Francais, Montreal
Private Collection, Vancouver
By descent to the present Private Collection, Vancouver

There are a few rare examples of monograms used by the artist in 1924 and 1925, including this one. Jean Paul Lemieux had just turned twenty.

The inscription on the back does not appear to be in the artist's hand, perhaps his wife. As for the label of the French Art Gallery, 1434 West, Sherbrooke, Montreal, it bears the signature of Jean-Pierre Valentin. The work probably passed through the dealer's home between 1990, the year of Jean Paul Lemieux's death, and 1992, the year in which Jean-Pierre Valentin changed the name of the gallery from l'art Français to Galerie Jean-Pierre Valentin.

The subject of this work and its treatment show the admiration that the young Lemieux had for the work of Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté. The textures of the surface testify to this. According to the year "25" in the monogram and the inscription on the reverse side which mentions "May 1925", this small work would have been realized before the short period of apprenticeship that Lemieux spent in Suzor-Coté's studio in the spring of 1926 according to current documentation. It is known that Lemieux later lost interest in the impressionist technique, which he considered too versed in surface effects, but he was fond of the textured effect of oil paint and its decorative effects in a painting such as Lazarus (1940) and, later, in a very discreet manner, in the characteristic surfaces of his classical period.

This is indeed an early work by Jean Paul Lemieux. Very rare, the only one dated in 1925 in the catalog raisonné. It has the dramatic character of some of the paintings and drawings of this period in the 1920s and 1930s. Its composition is hesitant as shown by the proportion of shadows cast and the proportion of light. The roadside cross is a theme popularized by Clarence Gagnon in 1916 and 1917, as well as by other Quebec artists.

We thank Michèle Grandbois, author of Jean Paul Lemieux au Musée du Québec, for contributing the above essay, translated from the French. This work will be included in Grandbois's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.

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