Artwork for Sale
The Brook, Beaupré, Québec
Inscriptions
signed, ‘M Cullen’ (lower right)Provenance
Watson Art Galleries, Montreal
Galerie Claude Lafitte, Montreal
Property of a Distinguished Montreal Collector
« Historians would deem this moment the beginning of a modern art movement in Quebec. » [1]
The Brook, Beaupré, is a richly painted composition by Maurice Cullen from the earliest years when he introduced to the Canadian landscape impressionist techniques he adopted in Europe. The early spring breakup is a study of light and colour that became almost a preoccupation from about 1921 in Cullen’s paintings of the spring breakup as he saw it, snowshoeing along the banks of the Caché, Devil’s and North rivers in Quebec’s Laurentians near St-Jovite/ Mont Tremblant.
In mid-1896, a year after Maurice Cullen’s prestigious election as an associate of Paris’ Société Nationale des Beaux- Arts, Cullen returned to Canada. Didier Prioul wrote
“From 1896, Cullen’s devotion to the exploration of winter in his artistic endeavours, right from autumn’s end until the start of spring, was already evident (Logging in winter, Beaupré, 1896). His first sojourn in the Côte-de-Beaupré was a turning point: he was able to persuade Morrice, who had arrived in Montreal in November 1896, to spend January to March 1897 with him there to share the challenging experience. Historians would deem this moment the beginning of a modern art movement in Quebec.” [2]
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Footnotes:
[1] Didier Prioul, "CULLEN, MAURICE GALBRAITH (Maurice Cullen)," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 16 (University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2022), accessed March 6, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cullen_maurice_galbraith_16E.html
[2] Ibid.