Marc-Aurèle Fortin Maisons de Ste-Rose Oil 12" x 14"

Marc-Aurèle Fortin

1888-1970

Born in Ste-Rose, Quebec, his father was a judge and did not approve of his son studying art because he thought it was not a practical way of making a living. He attended the École du Plateau where he studied under Ludger Larose (1906-1908) and also studied under Edmond Dyonnet at Council of Arts and manufacturers at the Monument National. Around 1908 he became employed by the post office department in Montreal and from there travelled west to Edmonton where he worked as a bank clerk and at several other jobs until he saved enough money to go to the United States for study at the Art Institute of Chicago (c.1910). He also studied in New-York city and Boston.

He returned to Montreal in 1914 and painted during his spare time, while working at different odd jobs. He mainly painted landscapes around Ste-Rose, up north in the Laurentians region and in Montreal. He started to exhibit his work at the Royal Canadian Academy in 1910 and at the Art Association of Montreal in 1911. It was after a short trip to England and France in 1920 that he began to work seriously as a painter. In the summers, he traveled to Quebec City, the Île d’Orléans and Charlevoix region, drawing and painting houses and rural scenes. Between 1923 and 1926, he painted many of his celebrated tree scenes.

Following his father’s death in 1933 and having gotten a substantial heritage, Fortin returned to France for a year between 1934 and 1935, traveling around the country, drawing and painting. Upon his return to Canada, he moved to Sainte-Rose and started experimenting with the application of pure colours onto a black surface, achieving luminous, brilliant colour. Later, he used a similar approach with a grey surface. In 1937, he exhibited at the Exposition Universelle de Paris and in 1938 his work was chosen for exhibit at the Tate Gallery in London for “A Century of Canadian Art”, an important recognition for Fortin’s work during that period. He received further recognition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Spring Exhibition in 1938 for a watercolour landscape which won the Jessie Dow Prize. In 1939, he also won a bronze medal at the New-York’s World Fair.

Starting in the late 1930s up until the mid-1940s, Fortin made painting trips to the the Gaspé region and the Charlevoix region, where he sometimes painted in Baie St-Paul with René Richard. Around this time, he experimented in watercolour highlighted with black pencil or pastel. In 1942, he held shows at the Galerie l’Art Français in Montreal and was elected Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy. In 1943, a show of his work was held at the Séminaire de Joliette and the year after, at the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec he exhibited with Adrien Hébert, Henri Hébert and Edwin Holgate. Fortin, who also worked in engravings, exhibited those works at the Canadian Society of Graphic Arts in Toronto and at the Art Association of Montreal.

Beginning in 1955, Fortin suffered declining health and increasingly miserable living conditions. He lost both legs to diabetes, stopped painting for six years and eventually resumed work from a wheelchair. In 1963, a retrospective show of Fortin’s work was held at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. In 1967, he moved to a sanatorium in Macamic, in the Abitibi region of Quebec. By the time he died at the age of 81, he had produced an estimated 8000 to 10 000 works, many of which were lost over the years to fire, bad storage or unscrupulous dealers. A retrospective show was held at the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec in 1976-1977 and again in 1988.

Collections:

- National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, QC)
- Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (Québec, QC)
- Musée d’art de Joliette (Joliette, QC)
- Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, ON)
- Agnes Etherington Art Center (Kingston, ON)
- Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (Montreal, QC)
- Séminaire de Joliette (Joliette, QC)
- Power Corporation of Canada (Montreal, QC)
- Firestone Art Collection (Ottawa, ON)
- Queen Elizabeth Hotel (Montreal, QC)

Affiliations:

- Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy (1942)