American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists

Exhibited:

New York, National Academy of Design, "96th Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture," March 5, 1921 - April 3, 1921.

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, 1925, register no. 284, catalogue no. 167 (as Sunday Morning, Québec).

Literature:

Augusta Owen Patterson, "Arts and Decoration," Town & Country, March 20, 1921, pg. 52 (mentioned).

Percy E. Hobbs, "Some Developments in Canadian Architecture," Country Life, vol. XLIII, no. 3 (January 1923), pg. 38, illustrated (as Sunday Morning in the Province of Québec).

Hélène Sicotte and Michèle Grandbois, Clarence Gagnon, 1881-1942: Dreaming the Landscape, Québec, 2006, pg. 115, illustrated (as Sunday, c. 1909-13).

Lot Note:

During the first quarter of the 20th century, Clarence Gagnon played a seminal role in the rise of Canadian Impressionism, steeped in local color, particularly the quaint winters of the Laurentian Mountains. Once described as a “supreme interpreter of Québec,” Gagnon steadfastly portrayed the landscape, architecture, and atmosphere representative of the region. His distinct technique paired deft, yet soft, draftsmanship with imaginative and thoughtful pigmentation, lending his canvases both a restrained and radiant quality. An idiosyncratic charm emanates from the artist's delicate arrangement of colors, forms, and objects cohered into a tranquil whole, at once familiar and intriguing.

Sunday Morning is no exception to Gagnon’s trademark portrayal of winter serenity. The work depicts a village church and square, peacefully drowsed by a cover of snow whose patterns on the roofs pleasingly mirror those on the hills. But the seemingly quiet scene is subtly suffused with energy and movement. The floating clouds, warmly wrapped-up figures, and plodding or standing horses all point to slow but steady, if intermittent, motion. Less directly, visual wit also conveys the liveliness of the moment. The quaint and tidy row of sleighs cleverly echoes and captures the cheerful pattern of straggling houses receding in the distance, invoking the busy and whimsical assemblage of squares into a quilt.

The gentle swirling and ordering of colorful elements culminate with the cozy and timeless act of congregating on a Sunday morning, embodied by the church central to the composition. The beaten path in the snow, edged by the neat row of sleighs, immediately leads the eye to the church entrance, the locus of tradition, and in a fashion akin to powdery snow, blankets Gagnon’s painting in nostalgic quietude.