Sold for: $58,250

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Ontario
Important Canadian Art, Sotheby's Canada, November 6, 1991, lot 55A
Private Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE
Fondation Marc-Aurèle Fortin, “Chronological Details of the Work of Marc-Aurèle Fortin, 1888 – 1970,” undated, https://www.fondationmafortin.org/en/maf_e.html
Michèle Grandbois, editor, Marc-Aurèle Fortin: The Experience of Colour, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, 2011, page 132

Paysage d'hiver is a fine example of Marc-Aurèle Fortin’s unique black manner style, which he developed in 1936. The style was based on an Oriental carpet he saw in Europe with a black background, “on which the traditional motifs hummed,” as he stated. Michèle Grandbois felt that this approach “was the culmination of a long process that involved the influence of English painter Alfred East and Fortin’s admiration for the craftsmanship of non-modernist artists.”

A recurring subject in Fortin’s oeuvre was the small villages of Quebec, especially his birthplace of Sainte-Rose and the countryside of the Gaspé and Saguenay regions. His paintings reflect his intimate knowledge of the peaceful life of rural Quebec. By painting on a black base, Fortin intensified the relationship between light and shade, and in Paysage d’hiver, the black sky makes a strong contrast with the snow and the colourful houses. The pigment itself becomes the light source, especially the snow, which festoons the houses, piling in drifts around them and on the hill behind the village, and the horizontal slabs of bright colour for the houses, vigorously brushed on, appear to glow. The inclusion of details such as the horse and sledge and the figure striding through the snow add great charm to the scene.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars