Sold for: $109,250

PROVENANCE
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. René Buisson, Noranda, Quebec
Private Collection, Quebec

LITERATURE
Jean-René Ostiguy, Fortin, National Gallery of Canada, 1964, listed, unpaginated, catalogue #28

EXHIBITED
Art Association of Montreal, 48th Spring Exhibition, March 20 - April 19, 1931
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Fortin, April 17 - May 17, 1964, traveling to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Musée du Québec, Québec City; Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina; and the Willistead Art Gallery, Windsor, catalogue #28
Musée Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Montreal, Marc-Aurèle Fortin and His Paintings, May 16 - September 15, 1984

In 1925, Marc-Aurèle Fortin established his residence in Montreal at 351 Notre-Dame Street East, and the city became his prime subject—particularly its harbour, the Jacques Cartier Bridge construction project and the working-class neighbourhood of Hochelaga, in the east end of the city. Fortin discovered this area while walking along the railway line beside the river; he found it a fascinating subject due to the expansion of the residential and industrial development into the surrounding farmland. From an observation point on a rise, he painted the panoramic view over Hochelaga to the hills beyond numerous times, from dawn to dusk. This is an exceptional painting of this subject and includes the striking Cathedral of Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue on the opposite shore of the St. Lawrence, at Longueuil. Richly coloured and detailed, it records the complexity of the dense Hochelaga neighbourhood, where the historical and the modern mixed together, against the expansive natural background of mountains and a sky filled with islands of floating clouds. Fortin’s signature great trees amongst the foreground buildings add another essential element to this fine painting.

This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist's work, #H-0787.

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