PROVENANCE
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal
Private Collection
By descent to a Private Collection, Montreal
Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 23, 2007, lot 191
Private Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE
Guy Robert, Lemieux, 1975, page 141

Jean Paul Lemieux completed La mer one year after his monumental and critically lauded retrospective at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1967. Although he was appreciative of the public acceptance of his oeuvre, he retreated once again into the deep and introspective themes of isolation and space in La mer. He remained steadfast in his vision, choosing not to jump into the idealistic haze of the late sixties but rather to embrace the spirit of self-reflection in this dreamscape. We see a slight smile from the subject in the foreground, while Lemieux adds a second figure in the background near the right margin. His subtle hand gives this figure a delicate reflection on the surface of a calm ocean. La mer is a rare painting indeed, as Lemieux removed blue from his palette altogether later that year. In his acceptance of the turbulent and troubling events of the world, Lemieux remarked, “If I want a blue effect, I now mix in black and white.”

This work will be included in Michèle Grandbois’s forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars