Art canadien classique
Laurentian Backwater on the Caché River, 1922 (circa)
29.8 x 41 cm
Inscriptions
titled, ‘Laurentian Backwater’ (verso, centre-right); inscribed by William Watson on his gallery label, ‘The Backwater was on the Cache River.’ (verso).Provenance
Estate of the artist;
Watson Art Galleries, Montreal;
Ms. Kathleen Byers, Gananoque, Ontario;
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal;
Acquired from the above by the present owner, November 1997.
Expositions
“The waveless, winding stream, the heavy peace of silence and solitude [...] To Cullen this might well be a sacred stream," Montreal art dealer William Watson wrote of his trip to the Caché with Cullen in 1931 [1]. It serves as an appropriate description of Cullen’s reverence of the Caché, the river he praises in Laurentian Backwater. It is penned by one who knew Cullen the artist and the man best.
This vibrant sketch by Cullen served as the study for a larger version, a painting entitled Winter Landscape - Spring, Lac Tremblant in the Sobey Art Foundation Collection in Stellarton, Nova Scotia.
Endnotes
1. William R. Watson, O.B.E., Maurice Cullen, R.C.A. : A Record of Struggle and Achievement, (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1931), p. 26
