Clarence Gagnon

Who was Clarence Gagnon?

Clarence Gagnon was a Canadian painter from the province of Quebec.

Born near Montreal, he studied at the Art Association of Montreal in 1897.Early in life, his mother had encouraged him to learn drawing and painting, but his father wanted him to become a businessman.

Desiring to improve his knowledge about art, he went to the Académie Julian in Paris, and studied under Jean-Paul Laurens from 1904 to 1905. Before returning to Canada in 1909, Gagnon spent time painting in France and Italy.

He then lived in Baie-Saint-Paul, where he produced many paintings depicting nature and the Canadian people. He invented a new kind of winter landscape that consisted of mountains, valleys, sharp contrasts, vivid colours, and sinuous lines. He became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1922.

Gagnon took trips to Venice, Rouen, Saint-Malo and the Laurentians in Quebec to paint landscapes. He illustrated the pages of the novel Maria Chapdelaine by Louis Hémon. As well, he was the illustrator for Louis-Frédéric Rouquette in 1929 in Le Grand silence blanc. He lived in France from 1924 to 1936.

Gagnon advanced modernist painting within Canada. He died in 1942. One of his disciples was the painter René Richard.