AANFM AUTO CAS QMG RCA SAAVQ SAPQ
1924 - 2001
Canadian
Sans titre
oil on canvas
signed and dated 1947 and on verso signed
18 x 24 in, 45.7 x 61 cm
Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000 CAD
Sold for: $37,250
Preview at: Heffel Montreal
PROVENANCE
Estate of the Artist
Galerie Simon Blais, Montreal
Private Collection, Montreal
This work by Marcelle Ferron is an outstanding example of her early practice, produced just a year after being introduced to Paul-Émile Borduas and joined the Automatists, before she became a signatory of the Refus global manifesto in 1948. Having just left Quebec City’s École des beaux-arts, disillusioned with its conservatism, she found a ready home in the new language of abstraction that was being developed.
The influence of Borduas is immediately felt here: dense tessellations of pigment are applied using a palette knife in a close-knit flurry of smeared strokes. However, it is Ferron’s skillful use of colour that defines the work, dominated by autumnal yellows, deep magentas, and mossy greens. The overall thrust is initially horizontal, perhaps suggesting a blur of movement; but a closer look reveals that the dense clutter of colour seems to emerge from the background rather than float atop it, forming a rolling burst of energy that swells outwards from the center of the canvas. Glaring white and the dimmed black tones glint off the facets of colour, serving to further animate and illuminate the body of the painting. This play of light and colour suggests the interest in stained glass that she would develop in the following years while she was living in Paris. Ferron was evidently fond of the work, as it remained in the artist’s personal collection, hanging in the living room of her Outremont residence after her return to Montreal.
This painting appears in the NFB documentary Marcelle Ferron by Monique Crouillère, 1989, minutes 4:40 - 4:50 and 6:42 - 6:47
https://www.nfb.ca/film/ferron_marcelle/.
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