Marc-Aurèle De Foy Suzor-Coté (1869 - 1937)
Après le repas, 1915
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Gallery
Cosner Art Gallery Ritz - Carlton Montreal
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Medium
Oil on canvas
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Time
Fine Canadian Art
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Dimensions
73,6 cm x 60,9 cm | 29" x 24"
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Dimensions with frame
91,4 cm x 76,2 cm | 36" x 30"
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Signed
Signed and dated lower right
An accomplished portraitist, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté is distinguished as much by his portraits as by his landscapes of Arthabaska. From the beginning, he showed a particular interest in elderly models, particularly peasants whose marked faces reflect a life of work. It seems to pay true homage to the first settlers who shaped the province of Quebec, by idealizing them and giving them a particular nobility.
Back in Canada, Suzor-Coté chose Father Esdras Cyr, a pioneer who cleared the Bois-Francs region, as his model. From 1908, he produced a series of works – oils, pastels and charcoal – representing this old man. In a letter to Alfred Laliberté, Suzor-Coté confided: “Canadian peasants do not pose willingly, they have to be paid dearly, and even then, they prefer to work in the fields. » The portraits of Father Cyr also proved profitable for the artist. Paul Rainville reports Cyr's words: “It's not fair, M'sieu Coté, you give me thirty sous and a packet of tobacco for my portrait, and it seems that you sell it for two, three hundred piastres. You'll have to pay me more. » - From and translated , Suzor-Coté, Lumière et matière, Lacroix, Laurier, page 230.
Unlike his pastel or charcoal works where the portrait was isolated, Suzor-Coté this time places his model inside a house, surrounded by furniture specific to the colonists. It includes Chambly chairs, typical of rural Quebec homes, as well as other elements evoking the daily life of pioneers.
other works of the artist

Marc-Aurèle De Foy Suzor-Coté
Arthabaska Landscape

Marc-Aurèle De Foy Suzor-Coté
La chasse au Canard

Marc-Aurèle De Foy Suzor-Coté
Après le repas

Marc-Aurèle De Foy Suzor-Coté
Sur une colline d'Arthabaska

Marc-Aurèle De Foy Suzor-Coté
The musketeer

Marc-Aurèle De Foy Suzor-Coté
La sablière, Arthabaska

Marc-Aurèle De Foy Suzor-Coté
Arthabaska landscape

Marc-Aurèle De Foy Suzor-Coté
Landscape
