Gaspé Peninsula Landing is not dated, but painted with the vigour of his palette in the period around 1930. It is a luminous and complete composition embracing a broad perspective that showcases the area’s entire topography, including Gaspé Bay in the distance. Robert Pilot included a few fishermen’s houses on the left and, on the right, the beach with onlookers and perhaps fishermen on the wharf.

As an artist of the impressionist tradition, it is the above mentioned luminosity developed by the clouds billowing above the scene and the sunlight dancing over the water and landscape that results in the majesty of this painting.

Robert Pilot’s focus is on the jagged topography of the cliffs along the town’s northern coastline. As seen in photographs taken by Notman Studio circa 1900 (McCord) and in a drawing made by Simone Hudon around 1920 (Musée de la civilisation), the coast, bordered by the newly completed Highway 132 (1929), is marked, from north to south, by the Pic de l’Aurore, Les Trois Soeurs, Cap Barré, Anse du Nord, the beach and a wharf, all seen from Cap Mont-Joli.

Percé Rock and the town of Percé scenically is one of the most spectacular in the Province of Quebec. Since 1973 the area has been designated a heritage site. We are grateful to Mario Béland PhD for his assistance in the description of this painting.