James Wilson Morrice was born in Montreal in 1865. His father, David Morrice, was a successful Scottish-born textile merchant and intended his son to become a lawyer. Young Morrice briefly studied law at Osgoode Hall at the University of Toronto and was admitted to the bar in 1889. But Morrice, then a shy flautist and emerging painter, had a change of heart. He later told a friend, “What prevents me going back to the Ontario bar is the love I have of paint—the privilege of floating over things.” In the winter of 1889, he would depart for Europe, never to live in Canada permanently again. He would shape his life and work around his desire to “[float] over things,” becoming a flâneur in the tradition of Charles Baudelaire, the French writer who popularized the term “modernity” to describe the transient urban encounters that painters like Morrice were eager to capture.

While in Paris, Morrice was drawn to leisurely scenes in public squares, parks, terraces and gardens. His subdued palette, gauzy application and sparse highlights emphasized the impression of light and mood over photographic realism, often intentionally confusing figures and ground with his hazy yet omnipotent eye. At night, he would engage in the lively café and bar culture, sparking up regular conversation with the most forward-thinking members of French cultural society, many of whom would become household names: people like Henri Matisse, Auguste Rodin and Pablo Picasso.

Morrice was constantly on the move, always seeking out new scenes of modern life to capture with his portable painting kit. Matisse noted that Morrice was “a little like a migrating bird, but without any fixed landing place.” Along with his typical meandering through the streets of Paris, he regularly returned home to Quebec, toured throughout France and made frequent visits to Venice, attracted by the allure of ideal subject matter and finding it wherever he happened to find himself.

In 1912, the year The Crossing was painted, Morrice would sail straight to Gibraltar after a visit home to Canada and cross for the first time to Morocco. That year the Treaty of Fes was signed, granting France military control over many regions of Morocco and offering French nationals a new sense of freedom while traveling within its borders. Morrice would join generations of French artists, designers and writers, from Eugène Delacroix to Yves Saint Laurent, who would travel to Northwest Africa seeking inspiration, freedom or immersion in a culture quite different to the French way of life.

While The Crossing carries thematic similarities to Morrice’s revered ferry paintings depicting the voyage between Quebec City and Lévis, this sketch likely derives from crossing the Strait of Gibraltar on his first trip to Tangier. Although it would be difficult to confirm resolutely, the bright sand, cerulean palette and long coastal compositional elements match many sketches from the same year with similar subject matter, including Sketch for Waiting for the Boat, Tangiers (circa 1912 – 1913) and By the Sea (circa 1912).

Morrice painted this sketch from an elevated perspective, looking down at a small crowd of shrouded passengers and one isolated figure below. A bright red ensign floats high above the boat’s deck, flanked by white vents. The strong symmetrical composition and rippling sea rendered with rapid thin strokes gives the vessel a sense of power and movement, charging towards its destination.

This painting can be read as a metaphorical passage for Morrice, as his ensuing travels through North Africa and later the Caribbean would bring about fundamental changes to his painting style. While in Tangier, he would work closely with Matisse and invite vivid colours into his work, inspired by the beating sun of the Maghreb. This exquisite sketch is quintessentially Morrice, featuring allusions to his home in Quebec, demonstrating the Impressionist techniques he mastered in the French capital, and suggesting the relentless sense of adventure that would define his life and his painting.