Robert Wakeham Pilot 1898 - 1968

Private Collection, Montréal

Many artists travelled up and down the shores of the St. Lawrence River to paint the quaint little villages, the settlements stretching inland, the ports, the waterfalls, and the dramatic landscapes: from Cornelius Krieghoff and the itinerant painters who worked the eastern seaboard, to A.Y. Jackson, Frederick Banting, Albert Robinson, Maurice Cullen, Jack Gray, Lawren Harris, and many more. All these artists had favourite places and particular ways of interpreting this remarkable maritime highway, but Pilot's affection for Quebec City and Baie St. Paul was of a special kind.

This canvas was made with all the verve and excitement Pilot found in scenes such as this. He liked to stand back, catch the town from behind, and yet load in detail so that the prominent features, such as the church and the convent or seminary, the port, and the houses and warehouses were not overlooked. He also was attentive to the great ridge that shielded the town from the northerly winds that blew across the vast and rugged terrain behind.

Like Jackson, Pilot also seemed immune to the cold; he worked in all weathers. He was able, as a consequence, to render the sense and feel of the day, whether cloudy or in sunshine, whether bitter cold or thawing, windy or calm. And his compositions were quite unlike anyone else's too. This view from across a bight in the river shore gave him a view that allows for a large piece of river, a factory-like shed that juts in from the right, a little domestic detail of the colourful laundry on the line (it must be a Monday), yet doesn't skimp on the town setting with a dozen or more houses and the two religious and defining buildings that both bracket and anchor the town and Pilot's composition.