Clarence Gagnon: An Introduction to His Life and Art

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University. She is the author of several books, including The
Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret
Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

Clarence Gagnon (1881–1942) was born in Sainte-Rose, a village north
of Montreal. This small, handsomely designed book looks at the
artist’s life methodically, from his formative years through Paris
(1904–14), Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec (1914–24), and his return to
Paris (1924–36).

Gagnon was not only a painter and illustrator (his colourful drawings a
feature of the classic novel Maria Chapdelaine), he was also an
award-winning printmaker who aspired to technical perfection. His
paintings were largely outdoor scenes, with winter a favourite subject.
Quebec scenes included horse racing in winter, the great log drive in
spring, and burning stumps. He mixed his own paints, creating colours
that were rich and dramatic. In March in the Birch Woods, for example,
the deep cobalt of the sky is repeated in the ruts in the snow made by
the horse’s tracks as it pulls the heavy sled laden with logs. In the
striking painting used for the book’s cover, horses are racing on a
frozen river while children pull sleds and neighbours chat, heads
leaning together. The feeling of a small, friendly neighbourhood is
delightfully caught.

Near the end of his life, Gagnon delivered a speech against modern art,
much of which he considered “an appalling decadence!” Writing to
fellow artist Horatio Walker, Gagnon exploded in indignation, using
language he would employ later in a speech to the Pen and Pencil Club.
On this occasion, he denounced Cézanne, van Gogh, and Gauguin as
“mental cripples,” while calling Picasso “a devil, colossal in his
audacity.”

The author, Anne Newlands, is an art museum educator whose other
introductions to artists include The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson and
Emily Carr. She sums up Gagnon’s legacy as one that spawned a revived
appreciation of women’s arts and of daily rural life. Her work is a
valuable contribution to the field.