Catalogue raisonné A-0375 Marc-Aurèle Fortin

Marc-Aurèle Fortin was the first Quebec artist to master watercolour. Extremely difficult to master, most artists of the time abandoned this technique. Fortin persevered for nearly 6 years, which resulted in a myriad of watercolors produced in the early 1920s. These watercolors were called sponges because they had honeycomb shapes, the result of color reactions on dry and wet areas of the paper. Marc-Aurèle Fortin adopted this technique for the same reason that Clarence Gagnon or Suzor-Coté used pochade. Thus, with little material, the painter circulated in the city to paint the various viewpoints. His technique was refined and with as much interest as for rural landscapes, Fortin produced urban works.

Here, in this watercolor, Fortin uses Mount Royal as a lookout point. "He returns there frequently to capture the shapes and colors of the city from afar, which then appears like a game of blocks piled up on the side of sovereign nature" 1

1: Grandbois, Michèle, L’art du promeneur aux couleurs claires sur des fonds sombres, Marc-Aurèle Aurèle Fortin, l'experience de la couleur, page. 112