James Wilson Morrice 1865 - 1924

Collection of Sir William Van Horne, Montreal (V.H. Inventory 294)

By descent in the family

Private Collection, Ontario

Montreal Arts Club, 12 March 1914, no. 22 as A Riviera Café

Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late James W. Morrice, RCA, Art Association of Montreal, 16 January - 16 February, 1925, no. 104 as Study

James Wilson Morrice: 1865-1924, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 30 September - 31 October, 1965, and the National Gallery of Canada, 12 November - 5 December, no. 47b as Sidewalk Café

About a century ago, Morrice left the University of Toronto with the law degree his father had insisted upon, and went to France where he became the painter he wanted to be. He took readily and quickly to the semi-bohemian artistic life of Paris and was soon friends of many of the painters, writers, and musicians there (he was an excellent flute player), many of them immigrants from the United States (Whistler, Somerset Maugham, Robert Henri), Ireland, England (Sisley), and elsewhere. The café society in which they all indulged could be found not just in Paris, but also along the Riviera in the south, or along the beaches and coastal towns of Brittany and Normandy.

This exceptionally fine pochade, with its vivacious colours and sparkling light, was one of Morrice's favourite methods of catching a moment when he saw something with particular intensity and immediacy. This rapid recording of a scene is one of the reasons these works have such vitality and energy. Morrice had an uncanny ability to compose quickly, leaving out and putting in the elements he wanted, getting exactly the right sense of how the light was falling, or catching the essence of a lady's gesture, or picking out a detail in the background. In this work he has compressed the quai-side café patrons into a brilliant composition, provided the harbour background with clarity, and bathed the whole in the bright sunlight of high summer.

We extend thanks to Lucie Dorais for her contribution to our research on this lot.  Dorais is currently compiling the catalogue raisonné for James Wilson Morrice.