PROVENANCE
Collection of J.S.D. Tory, Toronto
By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE
Louis Hémon, Maria Chapdelaine, 1933, illustrations by Clarence Gagnon, the related scene reproduced page 97

In the letter he wrote to his friend Dr. Eugène Tremblay on November 8, 1931, Clarence Gagnon explained that “during my laborious gestation of Maria Chapdelaine, I am constantly immersed in my memories of Baie-Saint-Paul.”[1] It is therefore understandable that the artist was not inspired by the peasant scenes and landscape of Péribonka to illustrate the famous novel by Louis Hémon. His imperishable affection for Baie-Saint-Paul led him to depart from the setting chosen by the French author in 1913: rather than Lac-Saint-Jean, his drawings reflect memories of Charlevoix that had profoundly marked his sensibility as a painter for nearly 30 years.

The present study for the illustration Farmyard in Winter on page 97 demonstrates Gagnon’s talent as an illustrator by bringing together in a small space several activities including, in the foreground, a child pushing a sleigh and two men sawing wood with a two-person saw. Comparing the study with the illustration in the book, we notice the more decorative treatment given to the latter: the artist has removed the detailed lines of the study to enhance the patterns of bright colours that contrast with the brightness of the snow and the bluish surfaces of the shadows.

We thank Michèle Grandbois, co-author of Clarence Gagnon, 1881 – 1942: Dreaming the Landscape, for contributing the above essay, translated from the French.

1. This letter is in the artist’s file at the Musée de Charlevoix, in La Malbaie, QC.

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