Marc-Aurèle Fortin 1888 - 1970

M.A.T., Laval, Quebec

Galerie l'art Français, Montreal

Private Collection, Montreal

Esther Trépanier, Marc-Aurèle Fortin (1888-1970), Retrospective Exhibition, Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal, September, 2006, p. 6

Jean-René Ostiguy, Fortin: An exhibition organized and circulated by the National Gallery of Canada, p. 3

 

This painting on masonite is in overall very good condition. There are minor losses around the edges on all four sides, presumably due to rubbing in a previous frame. There are no apparent issues under UV.
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Characteristically expressing his subject matter in bold, Marc-Aurèle Fortin's work evokes an illustrative quality that captures the essence of Quebec with familiar scenes of both town and country.

Paysage Avec Maisons is an exceptional example of Fortin's later work and clearly demonstrates the evolution of his trademark style. The quaint houses, oversized trees, and idyllic cloud-filled sky are painted in an outgrowth of the Impressionist tradition with which he identified, although he is more accurately compared to the Fauvists because of his vibrant colours and flattened planes.

In Ateliers: Études sur vingt-deux peintres et sculpteurs canadiens, art critic and director of La Revue Jean Chauvin linked the painter's works to modernist Émile Zola's idea that art is nature seen through a temperament; that the artist's individual interpretation should be valued over illusory representations. Chauvin asserted that Fortin's strong temperament is revealed in his works. For this reason Fortin must not be taken for a mere illustrator, but as a passionate imagist whose skill and intuition crafted a visual identity for Quebec in the early 20th century.