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Œuvres d'art
Fig. 1 La Goulue’s barrack in Paris, ca 1895. Image courtesy of Lucie Dorais
Fig. 2 The Circus, Concarneau, oil on wood panel, 13.2 x 17 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Gift, G.B. Laing 1989. Image courtesy of Lucie Dorais
James Wilson MorriceStreet Scene, Brittany (Concarneau), 1909 (circa)1865-1924Oil on wood panel4 7/8 x 6 1/8 in
12.3 x 15.4 cmSoldConsultez les images additionnelles
Inscriptions
studio stamp, 'STUDIO J.W. MORRICE' (verso, centre)Provenance
Estate of James Wilson Morrice.
William Scott & Sons, executors of the Estate of J.W. Morrice, Montreal,
Private collection;
Wedding gift from the above to son and daughter-in-law, Westmount, Quebec, October, 1952;
Estate of the above.
This street scene was sketched in Concarneau, in southern Brittany. In spite of the very small format, we recognize the weekday costume, perhaps that of a sardinière (sardine worker), with her small pointed cap; her lace collar is rendered by a single, transparent stroke of white. We can even guess her tiny ear; her face is away from us: is she lost in her thoughts? Treasuring the happy times she just had at the fair?
Because the colorful facade behind her resembles more a fair barrack (closed for the day...) than real architecture (fig.1). The flag on the cart only adds to this festive impression.
Morrice spent many months in Concarneau during the 1909-1910 season. He arrived on November 14, when the annual Foire Saint-Martin was in full swing on the quay, and a very hasty drawing of a barrack in his sketchbook betrays his excitement (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts #15, page 3). It could well be the source for the present sketch, painted later at a café table or in his hotel room.
The main attraction at the annual fair was the Cirque d’hiver, pitched on the quay right besides the basin for the fishing boats. Morrice made a few sketches and canvases of the circus tent, inside and out (fig.2).
This Fête foraine is still held each year in November.
Copyright © Lucie Dorais -
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