Paysage Rural, c. 1930 watercolour, 12" × 16" |
Marc-Aurele Fortin (1888 - 1970) Artist Biography
The prolific Marc-Aurèle Fortin was a painter, watercolourist, printmaker and draughtsman whose highly decorative, colourful landscapes celebrate the picturesque in nature. Among his favourite subjects were huge, leafy elm trees, rustic houses, hay carts and Montreal's port; his rare human subjects typically appeared dwarfed by nature. Fortin was technically inventive, experimenting with methods of watercolour, oil painting and mixed media. Fortin participated in numerous international exhibitions and held solo exhibitions at the Musée du Québec (1944), in Almelo, Netherlands (1948), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1954), and at the National Gallery of Canada (1963). He won the Jessie Dow prize from the Art Association of Montreal (1938), a bronze medal at the New York World's Fair (1939), and was an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy.