Sold for: $4,000

PROVENANCE
A Gift from the Artist to Bernard A. Bernard, Montreal
By descent to the present Private Collection, Montreal

The pastel is included in François-Marc Gagnon's online catalogue raisonné of the artist's work at https://borduas.concordia.ca/fr/catalog/3547, catalogue #2023-1517.

The excerpts from Refus global include the following essays: "Refus global" and "En regard du surréalisme actuel" by Paul-Émile Borduas, and "Qu'on le veuille ou non…" by Fernand Leduc. These essays come with the red and white cover, and are not bound or stapled, as they were originally published. Please note: this lot is not a complete version of the Refus global manifesto.

When Borduas made this drawing, he had already been in Paris for several months. He sent Bernard A. Bernard this pencil study from 8, rue Furstemberg, from the Ateliers d'arts sacré where he was continuing his training with the masters Maurice Denis and Georges Desvallières, accompanied by the following words: “Dear friend, For you, my old friend, this essa[i] of coloured pencils. Titled “Un coin de Saint-Hilaire”. I would have liked to give it to you myself. I could not, for lack of an address.” This message is no doubt linked to the letter he received from his friend, in which Bernard A. Bernard tells him of a nervous breakdown and a deep despondency caused by over-exertion. On his return from Brittany, where he had spent a month's holiday, Borduas hastened to reassure his compatriot:

Well, my dear friend,

I wasn't expecting to hear from you anymore, so your kind letter pleased me. But you saddened me by telling me that you were ill. Fortunately, everything has been fine for a long time now. If you want to believe me, you will never work so recklessly again. [...] Next week I'll be leaving for Lorraine, where I'll be decorating the most beautiful little church, the judge of my pleasure. France is a wonderful country, but especially Paris. Because of all this, I'm not bored, while thinking often, oh so often, of my beautiful Canada, Saint-Hilaire and my friends.

By giving him this drawing of the church in Saint-Hilaire, the image of which remains engraved in his memory, Borduas not only sought to restore the confidence of his childhood friend and reaffirm his attachment to his birthplace, but he also wanted to remind him of the reason for his absence: to become, like his master Ozias Leduc before him, an authentic church decorator.

The strong presence of trees in the foreground of Borduas' drawing is a reminder of the Canadian nature represented in the interior decoration of the church of Saint-Hilaire. As Laurier Lacroix has observed, “[f]or Leduc, art is first and foremost based on a desire and an ability to 'penetrate nature'. To do this, the artist must understand and master the material of which nature is composed, which will then reveal itself as an infinite source, capable of nourishing the creation of a work.” During the formative years Borduas spent with Leduc, he taught him that nature and the artist are inextricably linked and that the painter must strive to unravel its mysteries. In a later tribute to his mentor, Borduas evoked the profound feeling that his initial contact with Leduc's painting had instilled in him.

There is every reason to believe that Borduas, like the Canadian master, hoped to learn something new from his stay in France that would be conducive to his work. The young painter-traveller subsequently explored this same theme on at least two occasions. An ink sketch of the church at Saint-Hilaire, done on his return to Quebec in 1930, shows similarities to the drawing sent to Bernard A. Bernard. While the familiar elements - the trees in the foreground and the bell tower - give the composition a vertical structure, it is Mont Saint-Hilaire that dominates the whole. In another composition, “L'Église de Saint-Hilaire”, painted around 1933, Borduas, who had evolved towards a more symbolist approach to reality, depicts the north façade of the parish church. He skilfully moved the cross that adorns the steeple to the frame of a window, which he surrounded with ivy. The arabesque pattern of branches thus formed is borrowed from the Nabis: transposed into the form of an allegory, it shows the exemplary lesson Borduas learned from his recent stay in Europe.

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