Sold for: $26,325

PROVENANCE
An Important Montreal Collection

LITERATURE
Germain Lefebvre, Pellan, Musée du Québec, 1972, listed page 117

EXHIBITED
Musée du Québec, Pellan, September 7 - October 8, 1972, traveling to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, October 20 - November 26, 1972 and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, January 8 - December 7, 1973, catalogue #126

Rêve d’une villageoise is an important and significant work by Alfred Pellan, produced in his fruitful late 1950s period. At the beginning of the decade, Pellan won a grant from the Royal Society of Canada that allowed him to travel to Paris from 1952 to 1955. While abroad, he was the first Canadian artist to be honoured with a solo exhibition at Paris’s Musée national d’art moderne. As a result, he returned to Canada with great confidence, and Germain Lefebvre admiringly describes works from this period as “bursting, vibrant, from which emerge jewels, flowers and delicious little fairies suddenly coming alive.” This topsy-turvy world of Pellan is vividly exemplified in Rêve d’une villageoise. The small village is punctuated by the elongated female figure drifting through the sky and is anchored by the uncanny figure staring out of the bottom right corner. Such elements confirm Pellan’s inclination towards Surrealism, and the title, which translates as “dream of a villager”, solidifies this further. Pellan’s vision is full of fantasy, theatre and whimsy, making this image a visual feast for the viewer.

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