CC QMG RCA
1904 - 1990
Canadian
Décembre
oil on canvas
signed and dated 1963 indistinctly and on verso titled
15 x 43 1/2 in, 38.1 x 110.5 cm
Estimate: $50,000 - $70,000 CAD
Sold for: $121,250
Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the Artist by a Private Collector, Quebec
By descent to the present Private Collection, Michigan
LITERATURE
Guy Robert, Lemieux, 1975, pages 111 and 119
The same year this work was painted, Jean Paul Lemieux revealed his working methods to La Presse, explaining that he no longer painted from life, but from memory of the Quebec landscape, stripping away the details and retaining the essential image. He also stated that in his work, “What haunts me the most is the dimension of time. Space and time.” After a trip to France in 1956, Lemieux developed an elongated horizontal vision in his landscapes. On his return to Quebec he explained, “I had never noticed until then just how horizontal our country is.” In Décembre he uses this horizontal format to great effect in an evocative image of a nocturnal winter landscape lit by the whiteness of snow. We feel the expanse of snow keenly, and Lemieux develops the feeling of distance through the horizontal compression of space. Glittering along the horizon are the faraway lights of a town, like a string of jewels or stars. With its poetic contrast between the distant lights of civilization and the vast, empty and snowbound land, Décembre is a quintessential Lemieux landscape.
Estimate: $50,000 - $70,000 CAD
All prices are in Canadian Dollars
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