Sold for: $52,250

PROVENANCE
Laing Galleries, Toronto
Important Canadian Paintings, Drawings, Watercolours, Books and Prints of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Sotheby Parke Bernet Canada Inc., May 14, 1979, lot 15
Private Collection, British Columbia

LITERATURE
A.Y. Jackson, “There’s Still Snow in Quebec,” The Tangent: An Annual, Ontario College of Art, May 1929, page 46
A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country: The Autobiography of A.Y. Jackson, 1958, pages 63 and 64

Throughout the 1920s, in the early spring, A.Y. Jackson would set out on the “artist trails” that connected the villages on the north and south shores of the St. Lawrence River. He would paint the small villages hugging the shores of the St. Lawrence, with houses clustered around a church, or with snowbound streets running between the colourful frame houses. Jackson reminisced, “One of the places we loved to paint was St. Tite des Caps on Cap Tourmente, a high plateau, forty miles below Quebec. It was not one of the old villages, but it lay in a hollow encircled by hills, and we could look down on it from several directions.” Jackson’s first visit there was in April of 1928 with artists Randolph Hewton and Albert Robinson, and he returned in 1930, 1934, 1937, 1941 and 1946, such was his regard for the location.

Jackson was attracted to depicting rural architecture in the surrounding landscape, capturing old farmhouses settled into the curves of the hills, and he was particularly fond of the old weather-worn barns with their sagging roofs. He treasured these buildings – as time went on, houses and barns were torn down, which he lamented. As Jackson was there in late winter / early spring, the changing conditions of the snow captured his attention - as he recounted, “the sun and the wind continually changed its colour and texture. Towards spring there was slush and pools of water, and finally the furrowed fields appeared through the slush.” Jackson was so sensitive to the landscape that he painted that he was aware how the direction of the wind affected the atmosphere and colour, stating:

"The south wind is pleasant and soft, but it is seldom one gets clean color with it. The east wind is raw, and generally comes with colorless days—hills twenty miles away seem as sharp and hard as objects in the foreground. The south-west wind can be very fine, boisterous and soul-stirring, tossing masses of clouds across the sky, and playing with lights and shadows over the landscape. But the west wind is the good old stand-by. Blue skies and cooler blue shadows on the snow, and everything radiant with color, particularly when there is a little north in it. The pure, undiluted north is sparkling, but with unsympathetic blue and violets, so clear they make the palette look like mud. ”

Jackson would often trek about on snowshoes, setting off into the cold air with his sketch box to paint his scenes en plein air, risking freezing fingers and solidifying oil paints, as well as the distraction of curious villagers. Jackson boarded with families or stayed in small hotels in the villages, immersing himself in the warm atmosphere. While in Saint-Tite-des-Caps, Jackson stayed in a ramshackle old hotel, and he wrote approvingly of proprietor Madame Tremblay’s homemade meals, in particular praising her pea soup.

Jackson’s depictions of villages such as this are among his most beloved works. He captures their unique charm – in this oil sketch he includes the iconic image of a horse and sleigh having just crossed a small bridge, with another one further up the road. Telephone poles follow the road, the one in the foreground resembling a cross form. On house roofs, patches of snow indicate the start of melting. The scene has a rolling rhythm, from the curve of the road to the rounded forms of snowbanks and hills. The use of luscious pastel highlights in the snow reflects Jackson’s early exposure to Impressionism during studies in Paris. He lays down mauve, pale blue, yellow and pink tones with a loaded brush. Even the overcast sky has yellow and salmon tones. Jackson had a great affection for this subject, and Road to St. Tite des Caps is an exquisite Group of Seven period work from this renowned part of Jackson’s oeuvre.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars