Artworks

Although, from his youth, Pilot lived in Montreal, over a 45 year period his search for lighting and subject matter regularly took him to Quebec City. Among his earliest paintings of Quebec City composition date to 1920. There was a period of years post WWll when the artist had access to a suite of rooms in the Chateau Frontenac which afforded views over the River from which he painted. Cap Diamant (Cape Diamond) is a cape at Quebec City legendary for many historic reasons including a location where General Wolfe led British forces up to the Plains of Abraham in 1859.

For the artist , Robert Pilot, “[with it’s] muted colours and overcast weather, Quebec was well suited to the poetic vein in Pilot’s personality,” the scene is set against his pearl gray palette, his most characteristic. [1]

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Footnote:

[1] Harold Beament in Robert W Pilot Retrospective, edited by The Montreal Museum Of Fine Arts (Montreal: The Montreal Museum Of Fine Arts, 1968), 5