Marc Aurèle Defoy Fortin

Lot # 162 Marc-Aur�le Fortin ARCA 1888 - 1970 Canadian Vue de St-Sim�on oil on board circa 1945 signed and on verso signed, titled, inscribed "C-1483 / B-53171 and 33-53309" and stamped OP2064001 39 x 48 in 99 x 121.9cm Provenance: The Bonneville Collection, Quebec Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal Galerie Bernard Desroches, Montreal Kenneth G. Heffel Fine Art Inc., Vancouver, inventory #614-6 B678 Private Collection, Toronto Literature: Ottawa Citizen, June 7, 1964, reproduced page 14 Maurice Huot, Le Droit, April 25, 1964, reproduced page 3 Jean-Ren� Ostiguy, Fortin, National Gallery of Canada, 1964, reproduced frontispiece and listed, unpaginated Jean-Pierre Bonneville, M.A. Fortin, Verdun Cultural Centre, 1968, listed page 15 and reproduced page 16 Hughes de Jouvancourt, Marc-Aur�le Fortin, 1980, reproduced page 161 Guy Robert, Fortin, 1982, reproduced page 189 A.K. Prakash, Canadian Art: Selected Masters from Private Collections, 2003, reproduced page 173 Marc-Aur�le Fortin, The Experience of Colour / Marc-Aur�le Fortin, L'exp�rience de la couleur, Mus�e national des beaux-arts du Qu�bec, 2011, reproduced page 182 and listed page 256 Exhibited: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1954 Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal, 1958 National Gallery of Canada, Fortin, 1964, traveling to the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, the Mus�e du Qu�bec, the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina and the Willistead Art Gallery, Windsor, catalogue #62 Centre Cultural de Verdun, M.A. Fortin, 1968, catalogue #15 Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, Fortin Exposition Retrospective, 2006, catalogue #46 Mus�e national des beaux-arts du Qu�bec, Marc-Aur�le Fortin, The Experience of Colour / Marc-Aur�le Fortin, L'exp�rience de la couleur, 2011, traveling to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, catalogue #101 Saint-Sim�on is a small village on the St. Lawrence River in the Charlevoix region, some 175 kilometres from Quebec City. Marc-Aur�le Fortin's painting showing the village in the foreground, in front of the spectacular series of capes ending in the river, is a classic view of the site. Fortin was committed to the idea of producing an image of Quebec that had nothing to do with Europe, and in that he shared the thoughts of the American regionalists (Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood) and even of the Group of Seven, who were similarly inclined. But he was also convinced that neither the bustling US economic growth nor the wild Canada cherished by the Group could be used to accurately represent the situation in Quebec. For 300 years, French settlers had established churches and villages in Quebec, pushed back the wild border of the forest and established a rural countryside similar to the one the first colonists had left in France. The average look of the landscape did not have much to do with the Group's depiction of Algoma in Northern Ontario or the Rockies in the West. Fortin thought, along with traditionalist thinkers like Roman Catholic priest and historian Chanoine Lionel Groulx, that Quebec remained unique because of the language barriers and the attachment to the Catholic faith, both of which allowed it to avoid the secularisation of its way of life. In this, Fortin was in accord with a part of Quebec's elite - in particular the clergy. Some critics (like Jean Chauvin, Maurice Gagnon and Paul Gladu, to name but a few) who admired Fortin's painting but did not share his traditionalist views, tried to annex him to the "modern art" movement - the so-called "art vivant" trend. However, he objected vehemently to it because of his attachment to the great masters of the past (he quoted Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens and Nicolas Poussin in his work), and he kept his vision of a rural Quebec - immutable, far from the city and its global economy. His trip to the north shore of the St. Lawrence River immersed him more deeply in this persuasion, already defined in his paintings of large trees done on the outskirts of Montreal. If we forget about this particular ideological context, it is true that Fortin's painting is a pure delight of colour, line and movement. We can see in his Vue de St-Sim�on an almost unbroken continuity between the houses seen in the foreground and the square patches on the hills. The vertical church spire is really the pivotal element of the entire composition, and the unruly allure of the fences in the foreground is a part of a gyrating movement that incorporates the village into the landscape. Movement also occurs in the blue rocks of the cape plunging into the river, in the winding road climbing the hills and in the pale clouds drifting in a yellow sky. Fortin also had complete control of colour and of mood in the painting. We are obviously at the end of the day, as the blue shadows are deepening, and the river seems almost as quiet as a lake. In Fortin's work is the clear demonstration that one can never reduce a good painter to his political or religious ideas. The ideas are important not just for themselves, but for what he is able to do with them. Since his untimely death more than 40 years ago, the "modern movement" has strongly claimed Fortin as one of its own. His annexation to the movement was settled once and for all at the great retrospective, Marc-Aur�le Fortin, The Experience of Colour, shown at the Mus�e national des beaux-arts du Qu�bec in 2011. This painting was one of the gems of that show and is reproduced in the substantial catalogue, which was produced in both French and English for the occasion. We thank Fran�ois-Marc Gagnon of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute of Studies in Canadian Art, Concordia University, for contributing the above essay. This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonn� on the artist's work, #H-0518.

Lot # 125 Marc-Aurèle Fortin ARCA 1888 - 1970 Canadian Scène de rue oil on cardboard signed and on verso titled, dated circa 1920 on a gallery label, inscribed "JPV 8185" and certified by Galerie d'art Mayfair and Fortin catalogue raisonné #H-0394 12 x 16 in 30.5 x 40.6cm Provenance: Galerie d'art Mayfair, Laval Galerie Jean-Pierre Valentin, Montreal Private Collection, Vancouver Early in his career, Marc-Aurèle Fortin was part of Montreal's bohemian art scene, and was friends with members of the Montée Saint-Michel group of painters. From 1916, over a period of 10 years, Fortin painted around Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, from Terrebonne to Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac as well as in Île de Laval and Montreal, and he distilled the essence of these painting places into his work. Scène de rue is the quintessential Quebec street, incorporating slope-roofed houses with gabled windows and distinctive Québécois details such as the traditional horse and cart. Adding to the solidity and strength of this painting, Fortin used a distinctive technique of laying down a black background, then applying chromatic planes of colour. As an underlay, black gave both a sense of depth and an awareness of the painterly brushwork in the lighter colour planes. A series of rose-coloured clouds create a descending diagonal, adding a dreamy note. Redolent with atmosphere and warmed by glowing tones of yellow, deep rose and orange, Scène de rue is a splendid Fortin scene.

Lot # 114 Marc-Aur�le Fortin ARCA 1888 - 1970 Canadian Coulogne pen and ink on paper signed and on verso stamped with a post office stamp dated September 2, 1914 8 1/4 x 10 1/4 in 21 x 26cm Provenance: By descent to a Private Collection, Vancouver Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 25, 2006, lot 626 Private Collection, Montreal Estimate: $1,500 ~ $2,000 CAD Preview at: Heffel Gallery Montreal

Lot # 441 Marc-Aur�le Fortin ARCA 1888 - 1970 Canadian Rouen charcoal on paper 1933 ~ 1934 signed and titled and on verso signed, titled, inscribed "no. 10, crayon noir, $10" and certified by Fortin catalogue raisonn� #D-1051 13 1/2 x 12 in 34.3 x 30.5cm Provenance: Collection Claude Courcy, Montreal Galerie D'art Michel De Kerdour, Quebec Galerie D'art Clarence Gagnon, Montreal Private Collection, Montreal Please note: this work has been certified by Jean-Pierre Valentin. Estimate: $5,000 ~ $6,000 CAD Preview at: Heffel Fine Art Inc. Toronto

LOT 25 MARC-AURELE FORTIN, A.R.C.A. BEACHED FISHING BOAT, GASPE, charcoal and watercolour, signed 21" x 25"; 52.5 cm x 62.5 cm Auction Estimate: $12000 / $15000 Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist. By descent to the present owner, Ontario. Literature: Rene Buisson, Marc-Aurele Fortin: maitre inconnu, Montreal, 1995, page 117. Executed circa 1941. In a 1969 interview, Fortin recounted how Mrs. Byrne, owner of the Hotel La Normandie in Perce, had invited him several times to exhibit his artwork in the hotel’’’’s main room. The artist recalled how he had sold many large watercolours during these exhibitions and had made $1,400 in the summer of 1941. According to the consignor of this lot, the watercolour was given by the artist to the Byrne family in exchange for accommodation.