Marc-Aurèle Fortin 1888 - 1970

Galerie L'Art Français, Montreal

Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal

Private Collection, Montreal

Fortin did not often set himself the almost epic task of tackling a subject as large, complicated, and challenging as he has done here in portraying the town of Bagotville on the Saguenay River. He more frequently preferred smaller and more manageable subjects, which required less effort and time, and were also more saleable. Practically, too, smaller works needed less in the way of paints and canvas, and Fortin was often without the means to buy materials. Indeed, he sometimes painted on cardboard, wooden slabs, or almost anything he could find that didn't cost anything and which he could turn into a small painting.

The few such works as exist that are comparable in subject and scale to this picture have much in common. What Fortin has presented here includes all the elements that he orchestrated for these monumental small-town 'portraits.' He has chosen a high point of view that allows him to look down on the town, and to show how it is situated on the river; we look along a street toward the river to get a sense of the depth of perspective and the scale of the town to the place it occupies. 

The town itself, dominated by its church with its impressive steeple, is carefully detailed – each house with its distinct roof, shape, dormers, and windows, even down to the individual panes. The laundry has been hung out to dry from one house. A few of the inhabitants can be seen here and there, and a small boat, belching smoke, reminds us that this is the commercial highway of the region.

The season is high summer, Fortin's favourite. The billowing trees characterize a town that seems to have both age and wisdom: a pleasant and friendly park in front of the church perhaps. The sunshine glints off the river's long reach, and the opposite shore recedes into the far distance and into a blue haze. Behind the great mound of rock that tells us we are in the Saguenay region, the cumulus clouds pile up as they often do on a summer's day. This 'portrait' of Bagotville pulses with life, energy, and every part of it shows that it was painted with deep affection.

Richard Foisy writes:

In 1946 and 1948, Fortin stayed in Bagotville, and then in 1949 in Chicoutimi, with the Bergerons, usually from May to October.  He got there by boat or by train.  After the St. Lawrence off Charlevoix, and the sea off Gaspé, he now encountered the Saguenay fjord.  The steep-sided river, cut deep between high cliffs, with the village of La Baie silhouetted against it, inspired him to paint wide horizontal works on a black background or using casein.  Applied directly onto wood fibre panels, casein, discovered by Fortin in 1948, was more liquid than oil paint but thicker than gouache and took on a matte finish as it dried that fascinated the painter.  In particular, Fortin deliberately let the brown colour of the panel show through his brushstrokes, sometimes using the rough side, in order to try out - successfully - a new surface, but with oils this time.  In Bagotville and all over the Baie des Ha! Ha! area, Fortin again found boats, sailboats and rigging, for this was the site of considerable marine activity.  With his bicycle, his watercolour materials and his ragged appearance, Marc-Aurèle, who criss-crossed the region, could not help but be noticed.  Sometimes he was away for several days, wandering off into the back country. staying with a farmer and coming back with a batch of drawings and watercolours, tied up in a big roll.