Clarence Alphonse Gagnon (Canadian, 1881-1942)
Winter Camp Along a River, Quebec
signed 'Clarence A. Gagnon' (lower right)
oil on canvas
19 3/4 x 25 1/2 in.
framed 25 3/4 x 31 1/2 in.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Property from a Private Bel Air Estate.

Clarence Alphonse Gagnon was a painter and printmaker whose work, despite the artist's extensive time in France, focused primarily on the picturesque Canadian winter landscape of the Charlevoix region of Quebec. Gagnon was born in Montreal and began his artistic studies at the Art Association of Montreal under William Brymner at age 16. In 1904, Gagnon went to Paris for a year of study at the Académie Julian. In this early period of his career, Gagnon received distinction for his engravings: a gold medal at the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition in Saint Louis in 1904, and an honorable mention for an engraving at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Français the following year.

When Gagnon returned to Canada in 1908, he lived in Baie-Saint-Paul on the Northern bank of the St. Laurence River. Montparnasse, Paris Galerie A.M. Reitlinger mounted a show of his work in 1913, significantly the first solo exhibition in Paris for a Canadian artist, and Canadian winter landscapes were on view. In the years between 1908 and 1936, Gagnon divided his time between Baie-Saint-Paul and Paris while also making painting trips to Norway. In 1936, he finally settled permanently in Baie-Saint-Paul.

Despite significant time away from Canada, the Charlevoix region of Quebec, and particularly the town of Baie-Saint-Paul, would remain the artist's focus and favorite subject throughout his career. Gagnon made many drawings and pochades in Quebec that he would refer to as he was painting Canadian subjects while in Europe. Today, Gagnon is celebrated as a colorist who, in his time, presented a novel modernist approach to realist landscape painting. Through subtleties of color, brushwork, light and composition, Gagnon enlivened the large planes of snow and naturally monochromatic stands of deciduous trees of the wintery Quebec environment.

In Winter Camp Along a River, Gagnon presents an unusual motif of an Indigenous winter encampment nestled beneath tall pine trees along the shore of a sinuous icy stream. As the stream flows into the background, hazy Laurentian Mountains are in view. While there are no figures in the scene, smoke snakes out of the tops of the tipis and an overturned canoe is visible.

The landscape of the present work closely relates to a pastel on paper titled A Silent Stream of the North or Laurentian Forest and Stream, executed in 1921 and in a private Canadian collection. The pastel lacks the encampment but may be a finished preparatory work on paper for the present painting, in keeping with the artist's typical practice.

The canvas is unlined and retains the original stretcher bars. A few scattered spots and specks of loss above the encampment on the trees and a spot of loss right center hill. Frame abrasion with scattered losses and gold paint transfer along the left and lower edges. An isolated area of stable fine cracking upper center on the purple sky. The canvas loose on the stretcher bars. Under UV light examination, scattered tiny dots of white overpaint fluoresce along the upper edge. A few lines of white over paint, the largest a star shaped 3/4 in. area fluoresce in the sky upper right near the top of the mountains. A 3/4 in. line of white overpaint fluoresces on the ice left center. Scattered tiny lines of retouch near and below the signature. A few other minor scattered spots of retouch throughout. No further condition issues to report.

In a metal gilt molded frame with linen liner and metal gilt filet.