Sold for: $55,575

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Montreal

Marc-Aurèle Fortin’s beloved home village of Sainte-Rose was the subject of many of his landscapes. In addition to the village, with its stately elms and quaint buildings, he also painted the harbour at Montreal and various places in and around that city, bringing attention through these paintings to the urban landscape. His work thus stands in contrast to that of the Group of Seven, whose primary concerns were with unpopulated - or less populated - places. Fortin’s approach to colour in all of its varied, shimmering brilliance and his technique of using pure colours painted directly onto a surface covered with black or grey characterize his works. Here, we are looking out onto a hillside dotted with fields that are bleached into pastel hues and form a patchwork on the ridge beyond, rising to meet a sky of curdled clouds. The cool, shade-giving elm casts a deep, velvety shadow onto the house, wagon and road in the near ground, resulting in a scene of brilliantly orchestrated contrast.

This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist's work, #H-0883.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars