Fall Scene, Baie-Saint-Paul 1908

Curator: Standing before us is Clarence Gagnon's "Fall Scene, Baie-Saint-Paul", painted around 1908. Editor: Oh, there’s an instant wistfulness to it, wouldn’t you say? The muted golds and browns of autumn… a feeling of labor, too, almost solitary. I’m getting a definite bittersweet vibe. Curator: That’s interesting. Gagnon was known for his landscapes, capturing rural Quebec life. What interests me are the visible brushstrokes. Oil paint applied in plein-air creates a textured surface; it is all about production and the tangible relationship of the hand of the painter to the canvas. Editor: Absolutely! It feels honest, raw even. Look at the way he renders the trees in the background—almost hazy, impressionistic—versus the grounded reality of the figure working the soil. I think I feel more sympathy than wistfulness looking at his bent form, the very real weight of the wheelbarrow beside him. Is that symbolic in some way? Curator: That's the interesting thing, isn’t it? One could analyze the wheelbarrow as an implement tied directly to modes of production, connecting the artist to agrarian economic practices and Gagnon's engagement in documenting changing social conditions. His contemporary urban dwellers may romanticize life beyond the industrial sector but there remains the matter of where goods are grown and raised. Editor: Or, just perhaps, that sometimes it’s only through working the land, being this connected to the Earth, that we can perceive its subtle changes in preparation for the shift between Summer and Autumn...It is beautiful yet the colors tell me it's an awful hard day. Curator: It’s hard to ignore the tangible elements in how he captured those scenes, from mixing pigment to how he sells them afterwards. Editor: It certainly makes one think, doesn't it? Beyond pretty scenes, beyond hard labor… Curator: Indeed. An artwork offers insight in how the work is accomplished with paint. Editor: And with insight... we move on.