Marc-Aurèle Fortin 1888 - 1970

Fortin certainly had an eye for unusual subjects and unusual points of view. This urbanscape, looking out over old Montréal in the 1920s or early 1930s, is of the splendid château-style Canadian Pacific Railway hotel next to the terminus at Place Viger, much as the Château Laurier in Ottawa used to be adjacent to the railway station there. Place Viger was at the hub of Montréal when it was built in 1898, but suffered as the city centre moved west; the hotel and station closed in 1935.

Fortin's perch for this panoramic view was probably from a window high enough up from the ground to clear the rooftops. What he did with this perspective is remarkable, for between the lower band of long horizontal lines of the railway station and the close-up building and billboard, and the upper band of a uniformly textured sky, he has compressed the turrets of the hotel on the left, the spires of two churches, and almost an infinity of rooftops of a major city in its winter garb. Fortin's genius lay in his unerring ability to provide subtle contrasts and to set each element in its proper perspective. The poetry of this canvas is sharpened both by the accuracy of his observation and the latitude he allows himself to create or invent highlights and emphases that fall within the parameters of his vision.