PROVENANCE
Mr. G. Drummond and Mrs. Anne Birks, Montreal
By descent to the present Private Collection, Montreal

When Robert Pilot painted this view of Montreal in 1961, he undoubtedly did so from a perspective of nostalgic reverence. Seen from Saint Helen’s Island (Île Sainte-Hélène) across the St. Lawrence River, the Montreal skyline is missing a number of skyscrapers that would have been under construction at the time, namely Place Ville Marie and the CIBC and CIL House (now Telus) towers. Pilot has chosen to omit these symbols of Montreal’s urban and architectural change that was occurring in the 1960s on a monumental scale. Although its modern metro and world’s fair, Expo 67, introduced the city to the world, these rapid changes were often decried.

A sense of nostalgia is also conveyed through Pilot’s impressionistic handling of the paint. The late winter sky is rendered in soft lilacs, blues and pale yellows, buildings are seen through a gossamer haze, and fluffy white vapours rise from ships and the buildings of the port. In the forefront are depicted the Saint Helen Island Fort, constructed in the early 1820s, and a lighthouse that was built in 1911 to replace the first one, dating from 1907. Although titled Early Spring, Ste-Hélène's Island, this painting very much depicts the long Montreal winters, a subject Pilot handles masterfully with his crisp white touches of snow and gauzy atmospheric effects.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars