Sold for: $109,250

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Vancouver

In A.Y. Jackson’s peripatetic pattern in the 1920s, the late winter to early spring was the season reserved for sketching trips to the north and south shores of the St. Lawrence River. Small villages dotted these shores—picturesque gems on the “artist trail,” as it was dubbed, since many painters visited to sketch there. In 1923, Jackson was documented as sketching at Baie-Saint-Paul, on the North Shore, with fellow artist Edwin Holgate. Jackson’s title of A Quebec Village indicates that this work is an archetype. The compositional elements of the slushy road leading to the village with snake fences either side, the horse and sleigh, and the colourful houses spread over the hillside are typical of Jackson’s paintings of these rural settlements. The brushwork is particularly fluid and strong in the snow and road, where Jackson applied his paint with long strokes of his loaded brush. It is a brilliant sunny day, and Jackson’s use of colour is particularly bright in the houses, the blue shadows in the snow, the purple hills and the deep blue sky. A Quebec Village is a superb Group of Seven period sketch, executed on the spot and sparkling with fresh, effervescent atmosphere.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars