Sold for: $20,007

PROVENANCE
Galerie Michel de Kerdour, Quebec City
Private Collection, Montreal

LITERATURE
Dennis Reid, A Concise History of Canadian Painting, 2012, page 216

Marc-Aurèle Fortin’s vibrant work is instantly recognizable. In 1910 he had already begun to explore the “intensely decorative” style that would characterize his work throughout his life. This experimental approach, using boldly coloured backgrounds with contrasting hues on top, gives his work a feeling of electricity and life that is evocative of the Fauvist style. Art historian Dennis Reid placed these works “among the most inventive, commanding paintings to be seen in Montreal at the time.” Fortin was born in Sainte-Rose, Quebec - also the subject of this brilliant work - and lived the majority of his life there, painting the massive elm trees that dominate in the area. He suffered from diabetes and as a result, in the 1950s he was confined to a wheelchair and stopped painting for a period of seven years. He then took up his brush again and entered a phase of renewed productivity, from which this work comes, an image that includes two of Fortin’s iconic motifs, the giant elm tree and a rustic Quebec habitation.

This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist's work, #H-0884.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars