To celebrate the annual Mois de la francophone albertaine, we’re highlighting work by French Canadian artist Clarence Gagnon from the AGA Collection.
Although Canadian painter Clarence Gagnon (1881 - 1942) spent a large part of his career working and studying in Paris, he never lost his love for the landscapes of his upbringing in rural Quebec. In an impressionist style, Gagnon almost exclusively painted the Laurentians and Charlevoix region of eastern Quebec, often depicting a winter world of vivid colours, sinuous lines and sharp contrasts of light and shadow.
Another one of the AGA’s paintings by Gagnon is currently travelling in the National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada exhibition Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons. You can see a virtual presentation of the exhibition from Musée Fabre in both French and English here.
Clarence Gagnon, Farmyard, date unknown. Art Gallery of Alberta Collection, gift of The Ernest E. Poole Foundation, 1975