Gaspé Landscape: Anse-aux-Gascons

By repeatedly portraying the same scenes – in Sainte-Rose, the Hochelaga neighbourhood, Saint-Siméon, Bagotville and Anse-aux-Gascons – Fortin betrayed his relative indifference to subject; he was far more concerned with developing his formal language. Although, like Alexander Bercovitch, André Biéler and A. Y. Jackson, he tended to focus on landscapes that retained the look of a bygone age, he made little attempt to portray them with verisimilitude. This view of Anse-aux-Gascons and the six other known works that resemble it may well have been executed partly on site, for the artist had lodgings only a short distance away.

© Fondation Marc-Aurèle Fortin / SOCAN (2020)